海角大神

Libraries have been called the cornerstone of democracy. They are聽sources of information available to anyone, regardless of background, wealth, or social status.

For formerly incarcerated people reentering society, they can provide聽a way to search for jobs and learn skills in a world that can seem to have passed them by. But libraries are also a valuable resource for聽the more than 2 million men and women still imprisoned in the United
States.

While providing libraries within prison walls is not a new idea, their聽quality can vary greatly. Often incarcerated people are looking for聽legal tomes, researching possible ways to appeal their sentences.聽Religious and self-help books are popular, too. And like other librarygoers, people in prison just thirst to learn something new.

Last year the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation announced it would spend聽$5.3 million to distribute microlibraries of 500 books each to prisons聽in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C.

The man behind the library project, called Freedom Reads, is Reginald聽Dwayne Betts, who since his release from prison has published his聽poetry and is studying law at Yale University. Earlier this year he聽was awarded a 2021 MacArthur Fellowship, popularly known as a 鈥済enius聽grant.鈥澛燭he 500 selected books, which Mr. Betts helped to pick out, and which he calls a 鈥渇reedom library,鈥� cover a wide range of topics. They聽include both fiction and nonfiction, with an emphasis on books aimed at making the reader think.

鈥淢y own experience as a formerly incarcerated individual has been聽distinctively shaped by the power of books,鈥� he said at the time the microlibrary project was announced last year. 鈥淚n books is where I聽found redemption; reading is where I found freedom.鈥�

Through Freedom Reads, he says he hopes that 鈥渆ach and every one of my聽incarcerated brothers and sisters will be able to find a newfound聽freedom and hope that only literature can bring.鈥�

Mr. Betts visited Boston recently, helping to install a 鈥渇reedom聽library鈥� in a cell at a state prison in Norfolk, Massachusetts. It鈥檚 believed to be the cell in which Malcolm X was incarcerated during the聽late 1940s.

Through reading, men and women can travel to new worlds, despite being聽physically confined. 鈥淭hese books can become a part of their life for聽as long as they have to be there,鈥� he told The Boston Globe. 鈥淎lso,聽the books can become a conduit for them not having to be there.鈥�

Equipped with a good library, those behind bars can encounter new聽ideas that expand their views of life and its possibilities.