January 2024 Newsletter

"A yo Shy, you know this ain't your fault right," my man calls to tell me the day after he's been denied parole again. I'm his lawyer. But also his friend. We've called the same prison cells home. And so he wants me to know that he doesn’t blame me for this. He says this failure ain't on me, it's on the system. I've heard it before. From other friends. Always consoling me as if I'm still going to be serving time instead of them. 

This last time, wasn't barely a week ago. The wound fresh enough that the writing of it here is a reminder of something: Every time, when I was inside, picking up a book was just evidence that I hadn't been ruined. It was never proof that life was going to work out. It was never evidence that, even, things would get easier. It just meant I wasn't alone. And not being alone mattered.

We return to prisons, because the returning is our success. Every Freedom Library is a promise. It's our reminder that we return in the face of being told we're not enough or that the people we return to don't need us or want us or appreciate us. 

And this year, every single library will be both a bridge to freedom and a very real reminder of why it is necessary.

Take care,
Dwayne

— Reginald Dwayne Betts, Freedom Reads Founder & CEO

In January, the Freedom Reads team packed and shipped out the four shortlisted books for the Inside Literary Prize to each of our 300 judges on the inside in 12 prisons. Five additional sets of the shortlisted books were also sent to each of the prisons for those who are not participating as judges. In addition, we are also providing copies of the books to correctional staff, to include staff in the communities being built around reading.

The Inside Literary Prize, launched by Freedom Reads, the National Book Foundation, and the Center for Justice Innovation with support from Lori Feathers, is the first US-based literary prize judged exclusively by incarcerated people.

The books under consideration include The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty, The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories by Jamil Jan Kochai, South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry, and Best Barbarian by Roger Reeves.

This spring, Inside Literary Prize organizers will travel to each prison to lead live discussions, conduct voting, and host literary readings with acclaimed authors previously honored by the National Book Awards.

Freedom Reads Founder & CEO Reginald Dwayne Betts delivered the keynote address at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s 38th Annual Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Dwayne had one message: Dr. King once said that "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." For this to be true, more than anything else, we must believe that mercy is an American tradition, and as much as American citizens have demanded, cajoled, and protested for justice from this country - they have also granted mercy to this nation. This is the mercy that is far too frequently denied to those in prison. What would this country be if mercy was not reserved for the privileged?

Columbia University’s Incarcerated Writers Initiative (IWI) is accepting submissions from currently and formerly incarcerated writers and visual artists. 

All submissions are considered for The Exchange, IWI’s annual literary magazine and a platform specifically for writers and artists in prisons across the United States, and for the Columbia Journal. Each submitter receives a feedback letter from a Writing Program student, and they offer a constructive response to their work and ideas on how to improve its effectiveness. 

Each newsletter we aim to share at least one letter (or excerpt) from one of Freedom Reads now 25,000-plus Freedom Library patrons. Freedom Reads receives many letters from the inside. They mean so much to us. And we respond to each and every one of them.

Dear Mr. Betts and crew,

On behalf of so many of us incarcerated here...in VA – thank you!!!

Your generous – and well-received – gifts of individual pod libraries – handsome and amazingly stocked – are wonderful, to say the least.

I personally could not believe that – all of a sudden – after tackling the incredible talent of the Harlem Renaissance through scattered books – here was a brimming stock of the group's most beloved. And, some of the best books, including these, ever written....

– Erik, Freedom Library Patron in Virginia

Thank you for supporting our 2023 end of year campaign! Your generous donations helped us raise over $120,000.

We hope you’ll help us continue to open Freedom Libraries in prisons and juvenile detention facilities across the nation.