Results from The Reader’s Journal Program

This data visualization represents reading-based data that I collected from an Adult Corrections Facility. The source for the data was a reading journal that facility residents volunteered to fill out between 2016 and 2019.

There were over 4000 data points and that I used to explore:

  • What did residents read?
  • Where did residents get their reading materials?
  • What genres were the most popular?
  • What was the frequency of the books that were read?
click for journal example
Why books matter in corrections facilities

“Reading in prison counters the forces of isolation, abandonment, and dehumanization by serving as an opening to other people, ideas, and the world outside the prison. Furthermore, reading generates possibilities for prisoners to reenvision and rescript their lives.”

Megan Sweeney, Reading is My Window