Medar de la Cruz writes: “For more than a year, I’ve been working in New York City jails as a library assistant for the Brooklyn Public Library. I started out at the jail complex on Rikers Island. Now I work at the Vernon C. Bain Center. The Department of Correction doesn’t give us any bookshelves, so at Rikers my colleagues and I rolled a squeaky cart from dorm to dorm. I’m always moved by the sense of gratitude and warmth that some people express when we’re able to get them the books that they asked for.