Freedom Reads Returns to Open Additional Freedom Libraries in Louisiana Prison
National non-profit Freedom Reads opens six Freedom Libraries at Rayburn Correctional Center in Louisiana
The national non-profit Freedom Reads announced today the opening of six new Freedom Libraries across Rayburn Correctional Center (RCC) in Louisiana. Freedom Reads had previously opened 10 Freedom Libraries at RCC this June. The Freedom Libraries are in cellblocks across the prison, allowing incarcerated individuals direct access to inspiring literature. As of today, Freedom Reads has opened 33 Freedom Libraries in Louisiana and 419 Freedom Libraries total across 44 adult and youth prisons in 12 states.
“Returning to prisons is a core tenet of Freedom Reads,” said Freedom Reads Founder & CEO Reginald Dwayne Betts. “We return to remind people behind bars that they aren’t forgotten. And, we relish the opportunity to return to Rayburn Correctional Center to provide more access to our Freedom Libraries and great literature. As always, we’re grateful for the continued support of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections for partnering with us to make these Freedom Library openings happen.”
“This donation means so much to our prison population as it will help broaden their horizons through reading,” said Secretary Gary Westcott, Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections. “We are excited about expanding reading opportunities and 24-hour accessibility to the portable libraries in the prison’s living areas. We’re hopeful this will help improve the educational level of those who take advantage of this gift.”
“We are so appreciative to Reginald Dwayne Betts and Freedom Reads for their generous donation,” said Warden Travis Day, Rayburn Correctional Center. “The 10 Freedom Reads libraries installed this past summer at Rayburn Correctional Center have positively affected our incarcerated population, and we expect these six additional libraries to have the same impact.”
Freedom Reads is a first-of-its-kind organization that empowers people in prison through literature to imagine new possibilities for their lives. The Freedom Libraries are the brainchild of 2021 MacArthur Fellow and Yale Law School graduate Reginald Dwayne Betts, who was sentenced in Virginia to nine years in prison at age 16. Freedom Libraries are spaces in prisons to encourage community and in which reaching for a book can be as spontaneous as human curiosity. Each bookcase is handcrafted out of maple, cherry, oak, or walnut and is curved to contrast the straight lines and bars of prisons as well as to evoke Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s observation about the “arc of the moral universe” bending “toward justice.”
Books in the Freedom Library have been carefully curated through consultations with hundreds of poets, novelists, philosophers, teachers, friends, and voracious readers, resulting in a collection of books that are not only beloved, but indispensable. The libraries include contemporary poetry, novels, and essays alongside classic works such as Homer’s The Odyssey and Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man – titles that remind us that books have long been a freedom project.