Dismantling School-to-Prison Pipeline is Aim of Student Book Drive

When a group of students from adjunct professor Ade Ofunniyin’s African American Studies course recently took a class trip to the Charleston County Juvenile Detention Center in North Charleston, they were struck by the small size of the facility’s one-room library and its meager book collection.

An African American Studies class is collecting books to “makeover” the library at the Charleston County Juvenile Detention Center.

Recognizing the importance of books and the accrual of knowledge in their own intellectual development, the students wondered aloud how any youth incarcerated at the detention center could ever be inspired to pick-up a book from the unorganized, deteriorating and outdated collection.

So, this semester, the class set about to “makeover” the detention center’s library through a student-driven civic engagement project called Juvenile Justice Renaissance (#JJR).

The class organized a book drive and setup donation boxes around campus. They reached out to area libraries and others for donations of used books and magazines. In addition, they received a $500 grant from the College’s Office of Civic Engagement, which will be used to purchase even more books online.

On Thursday, April 16, 2015, the class will setup a table in Cougar Mall to collect books and magazines and to spread awareness about their project.

Ade Ofunniyin (“Dr. O”)

The book-collection drive wraps up Friday, April 17, 2015. The class plans to present all of the donated and purchased books and magazines to the detention center on April 21, 2015.

To provide context for the project throughout the semester, Ofunniyin has led class discussions about the school-to-prison pipeline that exists in America. “We have talked a lot in this class about how reading and access to books is one way to put a hole in that pipeline and let some of those kids leak out.”

Ofunniyin, also known as “Dr. O,” said he hopes the project will be carried on indefinitely through the future establishment of a student club.

The exact number of donated materials to the detention center won’t be known until delivery day, but freshman Brett Epstein said the number that matters most is one: “If we are able to get one kid to pickup a book and to change his path, it would make this a success,” he said.

For more information about the project, visit the JJR project Facebook page.