Information literacy for female inmates: an experience in the community of Madrid

Abstract

: Information literacy in prisons is still an incipient issue for the scientific community. As we have confirmed, in the prisons of the Community of Madrid there are no specific training programs for the acquisition of informational and digital skills. The informational, digital and gender gap makes it difficult to integrate people into the labor market, leading to social exclusion. In the case of female prisoners, this gap is further accentuated, and integration difficulties increase. We present results of an investigation that has had as one of its objectives the training in informational and digital skills of inmates, from the perspective of social and labor inclusion, necessary for their social and educational development, with the aim of improving their living and working conditions and increasing their participation as active citizens in society of the information. To this end, a training proposal on information literacy for social inclusion was developed. The chosen method was the case study, carried out in the "Jaime Garralda" Mothers Unit in Madrid. The results show how the informational deficiencies that the inmates presented initially were reduced very significantly after the implementation of the training program. This program contributes positively to the social and labor reintegration of inmates.