Women in Prison and Their Information Needs: South – South Prison Libraries Perspective

study aims at identifying the information needs of women in South-South Prison, Nigeria. The descriptive survey design was adopted for this study. The census sampling technique was adopted for this study. Four objectives were set for the study and the interview was used to elicit information from respondents. Findings showed that Akwa-Ibom Prison topped the highest (21%) of the women in South-South Prison, followed by Cross River Prison (19%), Delta Prison (18%), Edo Prison/Rivers Prison (17%) and Bayelsa Prison (8%). Findings also reveal that the information needs of prisoner’s women covered medical information (98%), education/security information (97%), life after prison/spiritual and moral (86%), financial (84%), family/friends (82%), legal issues (72%) among others. (70%) found the libraries condition in adequate. The study reveal that (73%) counselling topped the highest way of meeting information needs of women in prison. Factors affecting information needs of women in prisoners include, congestion/lack of hygiene / poor funding (96%), lack of medication / health care (91%), lack of security (89%), lack of accommodation after released (78%), lack of time to interact with family/ friends (77%), sexual abuse/excessive prolonged use and pre-trial detention (75%), lack of training/lack of special treatment for women (66%), mental health problem (61%), illegal activities (55%) among others. The paper concludes that Government should ensure that prison policies and programmes are specifically tailored to the needs of women, including those in the areas of resettlement among others. Recommendations were put forward to enhance access to information by the prisoner’s women