This month we began working for the second time with librarians volunteering with incarcerated youth to think about how we could use virtual world technology in a way that would bring meaningful programming to these youth while incarcerated. As with the first time we worked with this very marginalized population (see my earlier post), we are again beginning to navigate the opportunities and challenges for working with youth while they are in jail.

While we have not yet been able to find a jail in the New York City boroughs that will allow for even the most remote access to Internet by incarcerated juveniles, we have been able to secure a partnership with Jail North in North Carolina and another jail in Madison, Wisconsin. It seems that just as we find disparity between the schools we work with in terms of access to technology and resources, the disparity across the treatment of youth while incarcerated, varies significantly across the country.

Our previous initiative with incarcerated youth was through a partnership with Ashoka’s Youth Venture “Dream it Do it”