Freedom Libraries Open at Camden County Juvenile Detention Center
National non-profit Freedom Reads opens 5 more Freedom Libraries in New Jersey. New Jersey now has 51 of the 520 Freedom Libraries that Freedom Reads has opened.
September 16, 2025 (Hamden, CT) – The national non-profit Freedom Reads announced today the opening of 5 Freedom Libraries at Camden County Juvenile Detention Center, Lakeland Campus, outside Blackwood, New Jersey. Freedom Reads has previously opened 46 Freedom Libraries in New Jersey, 9 at the Garden State Youth Facility, 27 at Northern State Prison, a men’s prison, and 10 at Edna Mahan Correctional Facility, a women’s prison.
Commissioner Jonathan Young, liaison to the Juvenile Detention Center, said “We are incredibly grateful for this generous donation of Freedom Libraries to our Juvenile Detention Center. These libraries will give our young residents the chance to explore their interests, grow, and build a foundation for making positive choices.”
The Freedom Libraries are the brainchild of Founder and CEO of Freedom Reads, Reginald Dwayne Betts, who notes “When I went to prison at 16 years old, books saved my life and helped me realize I wanted to become a writer. Now, my goal is to bring books to others in the hope of providing joy, hope, and the possibility of transformation. As I always say, freedom begins with a book.”
Freedom Reads Communications Associate, Craig L. Gore, who was also locked up as a juvenile, said that his experience in prison impacted his development. “My saving grace was my appetite for learning and my desire to grow. I began to craft the man I wanted to be out of the men I would learn about in-between the pages of books. Reading stories and having them in my mind since I was a juvenile has kept me hopeful and resilient.”
Betts’ nonprofit is a first-of-its-kind organization that empowers people through literature to confront what prison does to the spirit. Books in the Freedom Library have been carefully curated through consultations with thousands of poets, novelists, philosophers, teachers, friends, and voracious readers, resulting in a collection of books that are not only beloved but indispensable. The Libraries at Camden County Juvenile Detention Center include a collection of young adult books.
About Freedom Reads:
Founded by Reginald Dwayne Betts, who knows firsthand the dispiriting forces of prison, Freedom Reads works to empower people through literature to confront what prison does to the spirit. Inspired by the recognition that freedom begins with a book, Freedom Reads supports the efforts of people in prison to transform their lives through increased access to books and writers. For more information about Freedom Reads and the Freedom Libraries project, please visit freedomreads.org.
Media interest, please contact:
Lori Gruen
lori@freedomreads.org