Prison librarian, New York City, Rikers Island

From the NYPL weblog entry by Jamie Niehof, Intern, Correctional Services Program:

Getting books back from the prisoners and letting them pick out new ones is a bit of controlled chaos. We stood outside the iron door to the house with our cart and had two prisoners come out at one time, check off their returned book, and pick out a new one. Each prisoner is allowed one book and one magazine. The most popular books are by far James Patterson's novels, so popular in fact that we have to lock them up after book service because they tend to disappear. I wonder if James Patterson has any idea. National Geographic is the magazine of choice, and there is an entire box of them to choose from, some as far back as the early 80's. Urban magazines and books were in high demand, with almost no supply.

James Patterson, who knew? But this is not too surprising; he's #5 on the list of all time borrowing favorites in the UK for the 2000s.