California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation | California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation | California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
The national non-profit Freedom Reads has partnered with CDCR to open Freedom Libraries at Valley State Prison (VSP) and Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF).
A carefully curated, 500-book collection will be placed in mini portable libraries in each of VSP’s 17 housing units and five of CCWF’s housing units for the population to access.
Founded by 2021 MacArthur Fellow and Yale Law School graduate Reginald Dwayne Betts, who was sentenced to nine years in prison at age 16, the Freedom Libraries seek to create a space in prisons to encourage community and where reaching for a book can be as spontaneous as human curiosity.
“With the opening of these libraries in VSP and CCWF we are bringing beauty, bringing books and bringing people inside to have the kinds of conversations we believe could help transform the lives of those incarcerated. We are thankful to share our goal of creating opportunities for daily engagement with literature inside their facilities,” said Betts.
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