Finding ‘Books for Crooks’ Is Novel Job for Jail Librarian

The library patron stretched out on his bunk looks up with a sleepy gaze.

“Got any Harold Robbins?” he asks. “Jackie Collins? Sidney Sheldon?”

“The big three,” remarks Eric Lyden as he makes the rounds at the San Mateo County Main Jail, delivering the books and magazines that help his captive readers pass the time.

Library school never prepared the 43-year-old “correctional librarian” for the work he does: visiting seven county-run jails to drop off reading matter to those with time on their hands.

“Head of books for crooks,” said Lyden, whose dry humor comes in handy as he banters with the inmates. Their tastes run to flashy best-sellers, crime novels, Westerns and--surprisingly--books of love poems.

A proper librarian might be appalled to see book covers ripped off to keep score for card games. Lyden must regularly replenish his supply of potboilers and romances because his patrons are not in the habit of dutifully turning them in.

“I’ve got 456 book thieves,” he joked. Some inmates take home books with their personal property. The one book that seems to get left behind when prisoners are released is the Bible, Lyden said.

Lyden, a former Sunnyvale public safety officer, has been the county’s jail librarian for six years, under contract to the Sheriff’s Department. He is employed by the Peninsula Library System.

Funding for the “recreational” library comes from the library system and the Sheriff’s Department, some of the money from the inmates’ own fund.

County librarian Nancy Lewis said Lyden has probably done the best job of any jail librarian to date in tailoring a program that fits his patrons’ needs.

“People have to have something to do while they’re in custody and reading is a good pastime,” said Sheriff’s Capt. Hank Derner. A sense of humor comes in handy working in a jail, he noted, because “it’s not the normal person going to the library to get a book.”

Lyden said the state requires libraries to be available to prisoners, but interpretations differ as to what that means.

“Some counties feel that a collection of National Geographics is enough to call it a library,” he said.

Lyden’s collection of about 4,000 books offers something for all of his 1,400 potential patrons, including classic and modern novels, poetry, history, cartoon and joke books and thrillers. He carries a special collection on drug, alcohol and child abuse.