When she became a 3rd District judge three years ago, Leslie A. Lewis noticed two common traits among many of the criminals appearing before her.
They abused drugs or alcohol and they had trouble reading.With the help of local attorneys, teachers and merchants, Lewis inaugurated a literacy training program in the Salt Lake County Jail. She also expanded the jail's library and increased the number of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings offered there.
"It saves the community money and directly impacts the numbers of inmates returning to jail," Lewis maintains today. "If people don't have any education or the capacity to earn a living, they don't have many options and we will see them back in the system."
Especially dear to Lewis' heart is a year-old program, dubbed "Booked," in which 20 volunteers teach reading skills to prisoners.
"It's exciting to get letters from inmates who said that for the first time in their life they read a book and enjoyed it," she said.
Some inmates must start with the alphabet and grade-school primers. Others begin by learning to fill out driver's-license and job applications.
The ultimate reward for many is earning a high school diploma by passing a high school equivalency test.
When it came time to expand the jail library, inmates were consulted. A survey revealed poetry, Eastern religions and Louis L'Amour westerns as the top requests.
Betsy Burton, part owner of the King's English Book Shop, donated many books and helped get others at reduced prices.
Last January, Burton began tutoring the first prisoner in the program - a 33-year-old woman doing jail time on drug and prostitution charges. The woman could read, but didn't.
"My thrust was to persuade her that if she had to be addicted to something to escape, it better be books - not alcohol and drugs," Burton said.
After nine months of weekly visits, the woman had passed her high school equivalency test and read five novels, writing a two-page report on each.
"Reading and writing gives them the skills to do something other than crime," Burton said. "It lets them see there are all kinds of choices in life, not just the narrow one they're on."
The inmate is now out of jail and in a drug rehabilitation program. She is dedicated to changing her life, said Burton, who has stayed in touch.
Penny Brooke, assistant dean of the University of Utah College of Nursing and a member of the Booked board of directors, says more volunteers are needed.