Manitoba reversing course on shelving youth prison pop-up library

WINNIPEG – A program that sees volunteer librarians drop in to help incarcerated young people find books is back on after the Manitoba government reversed course on its cancellation.

The monthly pop-up library at the Manitoba Youth Centre in Winnipeg had been running for two years when Manitoba Corrections told the Manitoba Library Association last month that it was being cut.

Kirsten Wurmann, program coordinator at the association and member of the group’s Prison Libraries Committee that runs the pop-up, said the change in direction is welcome but she’s still confused as to why it was under threat.

“We’re very, very happy, of course. It just really did not make any sense to us,” she said.

The program helps with rehabilitation as well as just showing the young people that people care, she said. 

Librarians bring in a curated selection of books that they spread out and try to match with the interests of the readers, said Wurmann.

“They are kids, some of them are 12, 13 years old,” she said. 

“And you know, we show the books that we’ve brought in. Hopefully we’ve maybe brought in some of the requests that they had asked for last time, so they are seeing that their ideas, that their needs, that their thoughts, and that they, are valued.”

She says Manitoba’s prison system doesn’t have real libraries, or library staff, so it’s important for volunteers to actually go in, and not just drop off some boxes of books.

“Sometimes it’s just about finding a book for someone. Maybe it’s about hearing a story from them, maybe it’s about saying, ‘Oh well, we don’t have that book, but what about this vampire book?’” 

Manitoba Justice Minister Matt Wiebe said Wednesday that the province has significantly increased supports at the Manitoba Youth Centre, such as added teachers, educational assistants for the first time, mental health support and more.

“We have put a ton of investment into making sure kids have the resources to get on a better path and make significant changes in their lives.”

He said there was some miscommunication about the space being used by the pop-up library, but that the province is determined to sort it out.

“We’re going to work through this, and we’re going to bring back the library and make sure that the kids have an opportunity to take out books.”

Wurmann said that while the news is good, the episode has left her concerned with how dedicated Manitoba Corrections is to supporting the group’s other library efforts in prisons.

“If it doesn’t seem to be valued in a place for young people, youth, young adults, then we really worry that some of our other programming other services were also going to be affected.”

She said there’s already constraints, and the group has had to cut back on programming at adult prisons from a lack of staff supervision, which is the only cost to Manitoba Corrections.

If there was more capacity, the group would gladly offer more, she said.

“We have lots of volunteers who are very, very keen on going in and you know, talk to the young people about something other than being incarcerated, to talk about things like books and favourite authors and, you know, just, being treated with a bit of dignity and humanity.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2026.