In the modern sense of punishment, not punishing but restoring should be at the forefront. Thus, the aimis to help the prisoner overcome the period of incarceration with minimum damage and to transform thisprocess into a constructive one as far as possible. At this point, the normalization principle is funda- mental which is adopted and emphasized by developed countries. The normalization principle requiresthe setting of conditions of the institution so as to resemble the regular circumstances in the society andthe ways of life, to which the incarcerated are accustomed, as closely as possible. The hypothesis ofthis study is that a qulified prison library service will improve the normalization process in prison. Alt- hough prison libraries are negatively affected by the problems that prisons face and although securityconsideration creates barriers to the normalization process, prison libraries are the places where theincarcerated feel free and closest to the outside world. In the world, especially in the USA, UK, Canadaand Scandinavian countries, an effort to develop library services in prisons has been made since theseare believed to contribute to the normalization process. Finally, the study indicates that prison librariesin Turkey don t receive enough support and that there are many deficiencies in this field. Hence the studyconcludes that many issues remain to be resolved in this regard.