Back to Walla Walla
My first prison library job was at the Washington State Penitentiary Main Institution Branch Library in 2005. During that time I enjoyed working in Walla Walla and when I left in 2007 I figured I would go back eventually, well at least to visit. This turned out to be truer then I thought when I went back a few months later to train the new staff member. However, when I went back that time things had not really changed. This time was different -everything had changed.
The Main Institution is now the East Complex; it is now medium custody instead of close custody. Same officers in the recreation building, but everyone else have changed. Even the inmates are not the same. Even the library had changed. There was new shelving and the tables were much smaller to accommodate the new shelves and the set up behind the circulation counter was different too. I said in my post about the Reformatory everyone sets up the library they are working in to reflect their working style. This is true at Walla Walla and the new staff member made the changes to reflect her style. However, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a little bit of a culture shock for me when I arrived to work for the week. Even knowing there would be changes I was still surprised.
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