TY - JOUR AU - Emasealu, Helen Uzoezi PY - 2019/06/28 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Attitude of inmates towards the prison library: a predictor of psychological wellbeing JF - Brazilian Journal of Information Science: research trends JA - BRAJIS VL - 13 IS - 2 SE - Artigos DO - 10.36311/1981-1640.2019.v13n2.08.p78 UR - https://revistas.marilia.unesp.br/index.php/bjis/article/view/8295 SP - 78-91 AB - <p><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">Information has been a veritable mechanism in the constant search for knowledge so as to attain developmental objectives. </span></span></span><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">In the same vein, information is vital in the life of all individuals towards the realization of socio-political, economic, and developmental goals, it also serves just the same importance for the survival of incarcerated persons. </span></span></span><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">Adopting correlational study method, this study seeks to define the attitude of inmates toward the prison library and its effect on their psychological wellbeing. </span></span></span><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">Two prisons - Port Harcourt Maximum Prison, Rivers State and Oko Prison, Benin City, Edo State, both in Nigeria, were selected for the study. </span></span></span><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">From the population of convicted inmates in both prisons, 440 males and females were randomly sampled to generate data.</span></span></span><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">A structured questionnaire divided into two sections - attitude scale and psychological wellbeing scale, was used in data collection. </span></span></span><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">Out of the 440 sampled inmates, 393 responded correctly to the questionnaire resulting to 89% response rate. </span></span></span><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">Data was collated and analyzed using descriptive analysis of mean and standard deviation, and linear regression. </span></span></span><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">The results indicated that inmates in both prisons have a positive attitude towards the prison library, and they are also psychologically adjusted in prison. </span></span></span><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">The result also reveals that there is a high positive relationship between inmates' attitude towards the prison library and its psychological wellbeing (r = .540).</span></span></span><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">The study concludes that bibliotherapy can further enhance the effectiveness of other reformation and rehabilitative programs for inmates, and therefore, recommends that the penal system should embrace bibliotherapy as a rehabilitation program for the reformation and rehabilitation of societal offenders.</span></span></span></span></p> ER -