Everywhere you look inside the Kent County Juvenile Detention Center, you seemingly find a resident engrossed in the pages of a book. This culture of reading and learning is the result of a much-needed overhaul of the center’s library, thanks to the collaboration of a passionate volunteer and the Kent District Library.
The result has transformed not only the library, but the entire atmosphere of the youth facility.
“Now, when I do checks during downtime, I see residents reading all over,” says Dino Foggia, program director and shift supervisor at the center. “They’re talking about books, asking to go to the library. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t see most of them reading while in their rooms.”
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Courtesy of KDLKDL staff members stock a newly refurbished library within the Kent County Juvenile Detention Center.
The transformation began in early 2024 with a simple request from the residents: they wanted better books.
“One day the kids said, ‘Miss Tonya, we need a better library,’” says Tonya Elias, a longtime teacher and volunteer. “And I said, ‘What does that mean? What does it look like? How do we do this?’”
Elias has been volunteering with the detention center for the past two years. She began by supporting youth with their community service projects after their release. When she heard there was a need for volunteers in the facility, she stepped up.
“They’re incarcerated, but they’re not bad kids,” Elias says. “They know what they’ve done, but they also want better. They want to read. They want to learn.”
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Courtesy KDLKent District Library has helped to restock and revamp the library at the Kent County Juvenile Detention Center.
Modernizing the collection
At the time, the facility’s library was filled with worn-out paperbacks from the 1980s, outdated educational texts, and few titles that resonated with today’s youth.
“Some of our books were probably 30 to 40 years old,” Foggia says. “Just having books from the last 10 to 15 years and mostly from the last seven has changed a lot.”
Elias began collaborating with staff and community partners, including the Kent District Library (KDL) and Grand Rapids Community College, to restock the shelves. Through donations, volunteer efforts, and targeted curation, more than 1,000 high-interest titles were added to the collection in a single day.
"In the past year our library has been completely redone, first with the assistance of GRCC restructuring our system in place and taking it from an outdated pen and paper system to our current uniform digital system, and now with the help from KDL we have a substantial addition of new and modern materials," Foggia says.
“They have a little library, but it just needed some love,” says Hannah Lewis, KDL's community engagement librarian. “So we stocked up on a lot of new books for them. We helped organize it. We're going to be back there to really make that space more user-friendly.”
The collaboration began with the idea of bringing the KDL bookmobile to the detention center. Then, the idea of a full library redo was suggested because it would mean daily access to books.
“We put in over 1,000 books, easy,” Lewis says. “It was nice because we could add a lot of graphic novels and more recent stuff, so they can read something that feels a little bit closer to the era they’re living in.
“They have some really kind staff and really strong volunteers,” Lewis adds. “The volunteer reached out to us because she works a lot with the youth, and they expressed that they wanted to use the library, but a lot of the stuff in it was very old.”
Careful curation
Foggia says the entire collection was essentially replaced. The new books included graphic novels, mysteries, and contemporary fiction selected with input from residents.
“We tried to avoid books that might be triggering,” he says. “This is a detention center, and some topics might be stressful for residents who’ve experienced trauma.”
Elias says she was sensitive to those issues as she shopped for books, which could be challenging. Despite the limitations, interest in the library exploded.
“Some residents have read three to five books in a week,” Foggia says. “Reading tends to calm them down and make them a little more thoughtful. It gives them something to focus on besides their situation.”
He adds that when screens or electronics are not available, books are one of the few forms of media residents can access.
“Even kids who say, ‘I don’t usually read,’ become readers here,” he says.
The center houses youth ages 9 to 18, with an average population ranging from 55 to 95 residents. Foggia says that nearly every resident who stays long enough visits the library and checks out books multiple times a week.
To support the growing demand, staff and volunteers have placed books directly in each housing pod. Elias says she is constantly restocking.
“Some of these kids read a book a day,” she says. “In the girls’ pod, one of the girls read all 14 books I brought in a week. It’s almost like literary circles within detention. They’re talking about books, sharing authors. There’s excitement about reading.”
Lifting their minds
Foggia believes the impact goes deeper than entertainment.
“For residents who are here for extended periods, having something to look forward to or keep them engaged breaks up the routine,” he says. “It keeps their minds busy instead of just sitting in a room with their thoughts, which can be difficult for kids who struggle with trauma.”
Elias understands. Her own family has lived through it. In 2014, her daughter Brookelyn died in a tragic accident. Her nonprofit,
Blessed by Brookelyn, was born from that loss. Now, she channels her energy into youths who, like her family, are working through their own suffering and trying to stabilize their lives.
“You can be mad, or you can try to find the good things out of something really challenging,” she says. “We’ve chosen to find the good in the hard.”
Later this year, her nonprofit will open the Brookelyn Elias Opportunity Center in Wyoming. The space will provide aftercare services, mentoring, life-skills training, and a safe place for teens transitioning out of the juvenile justice system.
In the meantime, Elias returns each week to the detention center. She brings more books, games, conversation, and a reminder that someone on the outside believes in their potential.
“Even if we change the lives of just a few kids,” she says, “you change the trajectory of generations.”
Literacy Matters is a series focused on the importance of knowledge, community resources seeking to remove barriers to access, and the value of our library systems to society. Literacy Matters is supported by Kent District Library.