The more than doubling of the size of the Board of Directors comes as Freedom Reads’ staff size reaches 20 and the Connecticut-based non-profit moves forward laying the groundwork for significant scaling of its operations
Five extraordinary individuals have joined the Board of Directors of Freedom Reads, a first-of-its-kind non-profit organization that empowers people in prison through literature to imagine new possibilities for their lives. The entire Freedom Reads team is thrilled to welcome the organization’s new board members:
Alex Duran is a Program Director at Galaxy Gives overseeing its Criminal Justice Reform portfolio. He previously served as a program specialist with the Open Society Foundations supporting grant-making efforts tackling mass incarceration in the United States.
Gara LaMarche is a Leader in Residence at the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership at City College in New York, where he also teaches and co-chairs Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice, of which he is a founder.
Steve Levitt is the William B. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, where he directs the Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory, and the co-author of Freakonomics.
Scott Semple was the Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Correction, among other roles at the agency over his more than 30-year tenure, before retiring from public service.
Bryan Stevenson is the Founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a human rights organization in Montgomery, Alabama. He led the creation of EJI’s highly acclaimed Legacy Sites, including the Legacy Museum, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and Freedom Monument Sculpture Park.
These five new board members join Freedom Reads’ existing board members:
- Board Vice Chair Deborah Leff
“The breadth and depth of experience of Freedom Reads’ expanded Board of Directors is nothing short of amazing,” said Freedom Reads Founder & CEO Reginald Dwayne Betts. “We are extremely fortunate to have such talent onboard to help guide Freedom Reads as we work to achieve our vision of a Freedom Library in every cellblock in every adult and youth prison in the nation.”
“With these new additions to our board, Freedom Reads is deepening the well of skill and talent from which it will draw as the organization moves forward to expand our capacity and reach,” said Board Chair Tracey Meares. “I know I speak for the existing board members when I say how absolutely delighted we are to welcome these extraordinary and accomplished individuals to the Freedom Reads Board of Directors.”
As of today, Freedom Reads has opened 392 Freedom Libraries in 43 adult and youth prisons across 12 states.
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.