the role of prison libraries in normalization process

In the modern sense of punishment, notpunishing but restoring should be at the forefront. Thus, the aim is to help theprisoner overcome theperiod of incarceration with minimum damage and to transform this process into a constructive one as far as possible. At this point, the “normalization principle” is funda- mental which is adopted and emphasized by developed countries. The normalization principle requires the setting of conditions of the institution so as to resemble the regular circumstances in the society and the ways of life, to which the incarcerated are accustomed, as closely as possible. The hypothesis of this study is that a qulifiedprison library service will improve the normalization process in prison. Alt- hough prison libraries are negatively affected by the problems that prisons face and although security consideration creates barriers to the normalization process, prison libraries are the places where the incarceratedfeel free and closest to the outside world. In the world, especially in the USA, UK, Canada and Scandinavian countries, an effort to develop library services in prisons has been made since these are believed to contribute to the normalization process. Finally, the study indicates that prison libraries in Turkey don ’t receive enough support and that there are many deficiencies in this field. Hence the study concludes that many issues remain to be resolved in this regard.