[Publib] Looking up prison inmates

[Babel, Elisa (DCPL)]

Have you had a patron come to the reference desk and ask you to look up
status information about a prison inmate, state or federal? Just earlier
I had a patron ask about a lady friend currently in a state prison,
asking for her address.  I'm wary about giving out this kind of
information because there's no way to verify the patron's veracity of
the relationship (ex. "I'm a friend") to the inmate.

How do you respond and what information did you given out?  For this
patron, I gave the web address of that state's department of
corrections.

Thanks in advance for your responses.

 

Elisa

 

Elisa Babel, MLS

Adult Librarian

Popular Library Division

Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial Library

901 G St., NW

Washington, DC 20001

"To the historian, libraries are food, shelter, and even muse."~ Barbara
Tuchman

 

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