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<p> </p><p> </p><p>The Prison Service has always recognised the importance of reading
and literature in the rehabilitative process, and the positive effects these have
on prisoners. Every prison has a library, which is available to all prisoners to ensure
they have access to books and other material for education and training purposes.</p><p>
</p><p>The attached table shows the organisations that provide and fund library services
in each prison. The table also shows the available information in relation to the
allocated budget for prison library services over the past four years, broken down
by prison and in total.</p><p> </p><p>In the case of Wealstun and Isis, the reduction
in spending is due to initial set up costs in previous financial years.</p><p> </p><p>For
prisons in Wales, the reduction in spend is due to the change of stock rotation that
were implemented in 2011 in line with Welsh library service standards. Learning and
skills managers re-negotiated the capitation funds and this resulted in a reduction
in cost but not a reduction in opening hours or quality of material provided.</p><p>
</p><p>In respect of privately-managed prisons, contracts awarded before 2011 include
library provision as part of the overall custodial service. The breakdown of these
contract costs is commercially confidential, and is therefore not available and is
not shown in the overall total. Prison contracts awarded since 2011 do have identified
levels of funding for prison libraries and these are shown in the table.</p>
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