A new library for teens at Donald E. Long Detention Center - Media Pitch

Part of my MFA program is "Design Build". For this particular build, we are converting a prison wing into a library/literacy center for adolescents at the Donald E. Long Detention Center.

Here was my media pitch:
There is an interesting project going on at the Donald E. Long Detention Center where 18 incoming MFA students at PNCA and OCAC are volunteering to design a library for the adolescent students at the center. The current "library" (if you can call it that) is a small room of books in which the students pick 2 book options in only 5 minutes where they return to their individual cells to read. The new library increases the size of the library by at least 400% of functional space and will include custom-build furniture, an outdoor "literacy garden" as well as dioramas in unused rooms that represent classic books like "Where the Wild Things Are" and "Alice in Wonderland".

Researchers have consistently linked illiteracy and recidivism within this particular population, thus it is our hope that when these children read and enjoy it, their view of the world will expand ten-fold with new points of view, coping mechanisms, an outlet/distraction from incarceration and other stressors, etc.

Two guest artists - Butch Anthony from Alabama and Jack Sanders from Texas - and JP Reuer (MFA Chair) are leading the MFA students in only a time-span of two weeks. They are starting their second week on Monday. All supplies are by donation and much effort is applied to reusing existing bookshelves and other supplies.