I saw this story, and it was so great! I have a personal happiness here, in that I was raised in Central Illinois, so know this area. While I’ve never been in prison, the idea of books and ideas as freedom is one of my most important values. I think that for all of us who work in libraries, and who spend our days sharing books and ideas – we are able to spread that freedom across the communities we serve.
We have an excerpt below, and you can read the entire article here:
“The national non-profit Freedom Reads announced on Wednesday the opening of five Freedom Libraries at Logan Correctional Center (Logan CC) in central Illinois. The libraries will be located across two of Logan CC’s housing units and dedicated for use by incarcerated women. The opening of these libraries marks the first opening of a Freedom Library in a women’s correctional facility.
The libraries, the brainchild of 2021 MacArthur Fellow and Yale Law School graduate Reginald Dwayne Betts who was sentenced to nine years in prison at age 16, are spaces in prisons to encourage the full realization of self. The libraries are handcrafted out of wood and curved to contrast the straight lines and bars of prisons as well as to evoke Martin Luther King Jr.’s line about the “arc of the universe” bending “toward justice.” Centering beauty and dignity, the Freedom Libraries seek to create a space in prisons to encourage community and the exploration of new possibilities.
Betts’ nonprofit is a first-of-its-kind organization that empowers people through literature to imagine new possibilities for their lives. 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 poets, novelists, and essayists alongside classic works from Homer’s The Odyssey to the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, which remind us the book has long been a freedom project. Freedom Reads is working to put a Freedom Library within reach of every person incarcerated in this country….
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“With the opening of these Freedom Libraries in Logan Correctional Center, we hope to remind of a key principle of this life: To read is to remember a little bit more of who we are,” said Reginald Dwayne Betts, Founder and Executive Director of Freedom Reads. “We are grateful that the Illinois Department of Corrections shares our goal of creating opportunities for daily engagement with literature inside their facilities and a space in prison for books, inquiry, imagination, and community.”
“IDOC is excited to welcome Reginald Dwayne Betts and Freedom Reads for a performance at Logan Correctional Facility as we announce the opening of its five Freedom Libraries,” said Director Rob Jeffreys, Illinois Department of Corrections. “Research is clear – expanding library and information opportunities for individuals in custody correlates to more successful community reentry. We look forward to continuing our partnership with Freedom Reads to provide even more literature access to individuals in our facilities across Illinois.””