In February 2021, City Books partnered with Jailbreak, an autonomous, free-form coalition of abolitionists in Pittsburgh working to support incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people inside of Allegheny County Jail, to develop the Shuman Juvenile Detention Center recreational library.
On Monday, August 23, 2021, Allegheny Co. Manager William McKain made the announcement that Shuman Detention Center had its operating license revoked by the State and will close on Sept. 18.
Public donations allowed City Books to stock and maintain a library of classic & YA titles for the residents of the center for almost 6 months. We were caught off guard by the notification and have been scrambling to reach our contacts at the facility regarding the future of the books. At the moment, we have not heard back from anyone.
In the meantime, we are operating under the belief that City Books will get the books back and we are exploring ways to move the library to another location where other at-risk or incarcerated youth will have access to them. City Books will be able to fully fund the transfer with the money left over from the original fund drive.
As always, transparency is important to us, so if you would like updates on the location of the books and the effort to relocate them, please follow @citybookspgh on LinkedIn, TikTok, or Twitter.
Thank you again for your generosity and compassion.
