Information literacy behind bars: inmates’ information experience during prison rehabilitation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47989/ir31365394Keywords:
Information literacy, Relational perspective, Prison rehabilitation, Inmates, Correctional facilityAbstract
Introduction. This study investigates inmates’ information literacy experiences during prison rehabilitation from a relational perspective. It examines how inmates encounter, interpret, evaluate and share information within a correctional facility where information access is restricted and social interaction is institutionally regulated.
Method. This study used an interpretive qualitative design. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve inmates participating in rehabilitation programmes in a correctional facility in Central Java, Indonesia.
Analysis. Interview transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. Coding focused on participants’ accounts of meaning, trust, agency, emotion, responsibility and constraint. Relational information literacy was used as an interpretive lens to explore how information practices were shaped by the prison environment.
Results. Five themes were identified: information as moral and existential re-orientation; learning whom to trust in a constrained information environment; agency through discipline, selectivity and compliance; emotional and embodied labour; and ethical circulation and responsibility.
Conclusion. Information literacy in prison is not limited to accessing or using information sources. It is experienced as a relational, moral, emotional and ethical practice through which inmates navigate constraint, assess trust, regulate action, and participate in rehabilitation.
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