January 2026 Newsletter

I’ve always struggled with the beginnings of things, for me it makes the most sense to meander my way into things. In a way, I meandered my way into prison. I took the crash course: petty crime to carjacking before the midterms of my junior year. I get locked up in December and I might as well have gotten locked up in January. End of the year, beginning of the year – you get to imagine where you’ve been and what you’ve become.

n The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Adam Smith writes that “man naturally desires, not only to be loved, but to be lovely; or to be that thing which is the natural and proper object of love.” After he sentenced me, my judge told me that I could get something out of prison if I wanted. I’ve never appreciated what he said as much as I’ve come to as I get older. Candidly, Freedom Reads has been the opportunity for me to ask myself what it means to be lovely. What it means to watch all of us in this organization return to places that the entire world knows to be haunted and too often imagines is bereft. We go, and imagine that in going, it is because we know to ignore our kin inspires dread. And as Smith says, we dread “not only to be hated, but to be hateful.” And to ignore someone in need is to be hateful. At least I imagine that’s the case, when I think of all the people who have not ignored me in my moments of need, fleeting or long seasons; I’ve always had strangers cosplaying as paladins, or paladins cosplaying as strangers. Or just angels humble enough to need not announce themselves.

In 2026, Freedom Reads is going to keep at it. Right now, I’m parked at the Union Station in New Haven. This is where travelers often arrive, on trains from places as close as New York and from as far as Virginia, where my sons’ grandmother would arrive. It’s one of those things. If you’re lucky, people come to see you to say that you are both visible and loved. 

Freedom Reads returns to prisons with Freedom Libraries, with books as pathways to possibility. We show up, though, for reasons that have nothing to do with what we are or what we might be; we show up because there are so many Inside who are lovely, and deserve to be seen as such, and not the objects of scorn and suffering.

I know this because I hear from men like Rafael Morato. While working on a sanitation crew at Rikers Island, Rafael spotted a young woman struggling with a library on a dolly. Where others might have seen a delivery, Rafael saw the "curves" of the fine bookcases with the eyes of a man whose grandfather’s grandfather was a woodworker. He carried with him the history of a grandfather who worked under the Dominican dictator Rafael L. Trujillo, eventually bringing his wife and fourteen children to this country because his skill with woodwork and housebuilding was his ticket to a different life.

Rafael, a combat veteran and welder who is "nice with it," ran over to assist with the dolly not just as a gentleman, but as the heir to that lineage. He wrote to tell me that escaping into books is how he keeps his sanity, but his letter was also an offer: he wants to come out of retirement upon his release just to weld for us. He wrote, "Thank you for not forgetting the forgotten like a lot of society has." It is for Rafael, and the thousands like him who recognize the beauty in the craft before they even open the books, that we do this work. We return to the haunted places because even there, women and men are waiting to admire the curves of a life built with care.

Join Us: Our mission is as clear as it is vast: a Freedom Library in every cellblock in America. We believe that every person deserves the opportunity to be seen, to read, and to imagine a different beginning. Support Freedom Reads today and help us turn these pathways to possible into a reality for everyone still waiting Inside.

On Wednesday, March 4, 2026, Freedom Reads Founder and CEO Reginald Dwayne Betts will perform his acclaimed solo show FELON inside San Quentin Rehabilitation Center—marking the 21st anniversary of his release from prison. This powerful event brings Dwayne's story full circle, as he performs alongside incarcerated men in a space that embodies the transformation at the center of Freedom Reads' mission.

In her outstanding new book The Other Side of Change:  Who We Become When Life Makes Other Plans, cognitive scientist and podcaster, Maya Shankar takes a refreshing look at how the typically unsettling process of change can be seen as an opportunity. Change can be frightening and disorienting, but it can also be transformative.  Drawing on stories of people who underwent life-altering personal change, including Freedom Reads founder and CEO, Dwayne Betts, the book focuses the reader’s attention on what is possible following reality-changing events. Click below to read a short excerpt from the chapter entitled “Possible Selves.”

By James Jeter, Executive Director, Full Citizens Coalition

On the bus ride back from Carl Robinson to Cheshire, I wrestled with the idea that I deserved parole.  I couldn't see how it was possible.  Here was this mother in all this pain, and me, with all my character reference letters.   The letters that meant so much to me, that so many people wrote to highlight and applaud the transformation they witnessed in me over the years, that I hoped would hold some weight with the parole board. But it felt like an affront to the pain that I had caused this mother.  I couldn’t stop thinking that the only way to slightly soothe her pain would be to serve out my entire 30-year sentence.  So I had decided that I would say, ‘Thank you, but no thank you,’ to the parole board.

As Chief Development Officer, LeRoy oversees all fundraising for Freedom Reads. The role breaks down into three essential areas: meeting and engaging with supporters, asking for financial support, and thanking the donors who make the work possible. Of those three, LeRoy is quick to point out which matters most: the thanking. It's constant, and it's everything.

Each newsletter we aim to share at least one letter (or excerpt) from one of Freedom Reads now 65,000-plus Freedom Library patrons. Freedom Reads receives many letters from the Inside. They mean so much to us. And we respond to each and every one of them.

“ I just wanted to say thank you on behalf of the NJ-Step Program. I am the Class ’24 valedictorian and an aspiring Geo-science major. The Latin have a motto that I live by, “Excepto pro bat regulum de rebus non exceptis,” which translates to, “An exception establishes the rule as to things not excepted.” The bookcases you have installed are exceptional. They represent “Hope,” and not the umbrella term “Hope” that speaks volumes about doing better without any real guidance. Those books are the type of hope that’s a tangible, catalytic element to invigorate those who are prepared for change. Thank you for everything. It means more than you know.” 

Jamar, Freedom Library Patron, New Jersey

“I just want to say thank you guys for allowing us to have this opportunity. When I was outside not once did I read a book and now that I’m in here I can’t stop reading them. They help me “escape” the real world and all my problems. Books have helped me in so many ways and y’all giving us a library has helped many other kids, so again thank you!

Yonathan, Freedom Library Patron, New Jersey

In recent podcast conversations, Freedom Reads’ founder and CEO Dwayne Betts reflects on the power of books to transform lives, drawing connections between our mission and his newest poetry collection, Doggerel.

In this episode of The PlayFull Podcast, Kristine Michie and Dwayne explore how access to stories fuels liberation and resilience in social justice work.

Gays Reading host Jason Blitman sits down with Dwayne for an intimate conversation about the work of Freedom Reads.

Dwayne joins the Dog Talk podcast for The Miraculous Transformation Wrought by Books in Prisons episode.

Dwayne also recently appeared on NY1’s “The Rush Hour” with Annika Pergament.