Inmates make braille books for children

The Lee County Sheriff’s Office in conjunction with the Florida Braille Education Center would like to announce their first"Holiday Braille Book Giveaway.This will be held at the Lee County Bureau of Corrections Core Facility on Saturday December 22nd at 11 a.m. The Lee County Sheriff’s Office joined forces with the education center in August to train female inmates to write, illustrate and make books for visually impaired children.

The books are written in sighted (with illustrations) and in Braille, each with an attached CD that tells the story with background music. The books start out with the inmates creating their own stories. It is then typed by the inmate into a Braille computer program. The story is then given to another inmate who draws the illustrations to match the storyline. The story is then proof read by Dr. Gail Hallas, with the Florida Braille Education Center.

The pages are then printed by a Braille printer with the sighted pages on another printer. Once printed, the inmates will laminate and assemble into a final publication. The CDs are then made and sent to the inmates and are glued to each book. This process sounds easy, but is very time consuming and in the end, extremely gratifying.

The books will be sold by the Florida Braille Education for $19.95 each. As a promotion to kick off the books, officers will be giving them away to sighted and visually impaired children on December 22nd as holiday gifts.