Closing this Friday, the 8th of January 2021, the month-long Book Drive for Prisoners is wrapping up this community charity focus!
But the final push is always a good moment to showcase how needed this efforts are, so dialing down on the giving should not happen just yet.
Inspired by the movement from NGO Pertubuhan Kebajikan Sosial Sivasakthi (Sivasakthi Social Welfare), state assemblyman for Bukit Gasing Mr Rajiv Rishyakaran initiated this book drive in support of continuing goals to counsel, motivate, and train inmates and juvenile offenders in focuses on rehabilitation and reentry into general society.
Image credit: Jilbert Ebrahimi | Unsplash
Not only have books been identified as an educational pastime, literacy rates among inmates and juvenile offenders have been recorded to affect their rates of re-offending.
Across the world, efforts to maintain education as a human right, especially where prison population is concerned, have shown promising results. In the United States of America, where incarceration accounts for at least two million people behind bars, correctional efforts involving access to education have reduced reoffending cases by 43%.
In the United Kingdom, organisations like The Reading Agency has stressed the importance of providing a library to this systematically marginalised group, having yielded similar positive results.
By enabling this book drive, it is hoped that such outcomes can also be replicated in our own country, and that a drop in petty crimes and other offences can be encouraged.
The collection will be distributed to the Tapah Prison, Kajang Prison, Taiping Prison, Kemunting Prison, Batu Gajah Prison, Melaka Prison, and the Sungai Buloh Prison.
Any genre of book in any language is accepted, even comics as humor and visuals play an important part in providing diverse literature.
Collection point for the books are at Mr Rajiv Rishyakaran’s Bukit Gasing office from 10am to 5pm weekdays. Contact 03-7954 7490 for more information and to ensure a safe reception for a drop off!
Full address: 7A Jalan 52/8, PJ New Town, 46200 Petaling Jaya.
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