SALT LAKE CITY — As someone who is visually impaired, recordings of local books and magazines open up Sandy England’s world in ways that for her that aren't physically possible.
England considers herself blind because she can't read and said she wouldn't even go outside and walk without her white cane.
“It's when you get older, and you haven't been in school for a long time, you forget things," she said. "But then you read books, and it starts bringing it back.”
And thanks to an unlikely group, the West Jordan resident gets unlimited books; recorded, that is.
“It's good to know that people can use a service that we've provided for them that they don't have access to in other ways,” said Roger, an inmate at the Utah State Correctional Facility since 2009.
Roger is the lead reader for the Reading for the Blind Program: a joint initiative of the Utah Department of Corrections and Utah State Library for the Blind and Disabled.
“It's very difficult to get enough volunteers to read the amount of books that we need to produce for our patrons here at the library,” said Faye Fischer Reader’s Adviser for the Utah State Library. “And so we outsourced that to the prison and to the inmates, to be able to do that reading for us so that we can have a larger quantity of these local books recorded.
The program utilizes 15 inmates to give their voices and editing skills to novels, plays, magazines and more, to local Utah books and other publications.
The audience is more than 9,000 visually impaired, blind and disabled Utahns, with several thousand more in surrounding states.
“And that is why the reading for the blind program is so important to our patrons, because they can receive those local titles in a timely manner,” Fischer said.
The program evolved from a mandate by Congress in 1931, in a bill co-authored by Utah Sen. Reed Smoot. The Library of Congress then established the National Library Service, with the goal of bringing reading materials to visually impaired individuals throughout the nation. The act was amended in 1933 to include talking books .
Reading for the Blind by inmates started in 1988.
“It's a program that's been going for over 35 years. It started at the Draper prison,” said Teena Brown, supervisor of the Reading for the Blind program at the Utah Department of Corrections.
When the prison moved from Draper to the Utah State Correctional Facility in Salt Lake City, the program came with it.
“It's just like getting a normal job; they come in for an interview, we have them do a recording, so I can hear how their voice sounds and what their vocabulary is like," Brown explained. "So we have pretty high requirements. They have to have a high school diploma. And if they have college, that's great.”
The program offers inmates an office-like setting. There are recording booths with microphones and separate editing bays. Each book, according to Brown, can take up to 10 hours of work.
“I started as an editor, and after a little while of editing, then I moved into a narrator's booth,” said Tyler, an inmate who has been incarcerated since 2021. "I love it. It's a phenomenal job.
“I mean, the biggest thing is, I feel like I'm contributing to the community. I'm serving somebody and using my time, here in prison, productively, I feel like I'm actually giving back to people."
Inmates are paid $1.25 to $1.75 an hour, and come in four days a week working eight hour shifts.
“Most of the people out there think that everybody's pretty bad in here.” Roger said. “Which was probably an accurate statement. But nowhere else in the prison do they get to do community service type work. So it's kind of a coveted job for a lot of people.”
The service isn’t the only draw for inmates. For Roger and others, its the opportunity to learn skills that can be used in the outside world.
“Most of prison is up 20 years behind,” said Roger. “But here to do things that they're doing out in the real world. So when we leave, we actually leave with a skill."
Last year, the program recorded over 130 materials.
According to Fischer, many of the patrons are aware that inmates are voicing the materials, and for many like England, it's not a bother.
“When I first got here, what? What do you mean, a prisoner is doing this? she said. “ And I thought, why not? You know, I can't do it. I would love to read a book ... but I don't reprint and my braille is not that good. The Braille was good. I guess I could do that."
The recorded materials are part of a larger initiative by the State Library for the Blind, which provides free audio, braille and large print books to people with low vision or a print disability.
“So they simply just have to fill out an application to qualify to receive that service, and that service kind of replaces their regular library service,” Fischer said.
Listeners tend to like a range of topics, but certain genres are quite popular
“The average age of our patron is about 85,” Fischer said with a chuckle. “So Westerns are a big hit. Clean romance is a big hit. And you know, religious topics are important to our readers as well.
The program is a win-win for all involved.
Stuck inside the walls of the prisons, inmates get work with a purpose and get to experience places and events that they may never see through reading and recording for the blind.
It's a similar situation for the listeners.
“I feel sorry for them,” Sandy said. “ Because I don't care if you're prison are wherever you are in life. If you're doing a service, I don't think you need to be judged for that. Because you're helping people.
"And they're helping themselves at the same time.”
