What We Do

Our Programs
Success Stories

Free Minds uses books and creative writing to empower young inmates to transform their lives. By mentoring and connecting them to supportive services throughout their entire incarceration into reentry, Free Minds inspires these youths to see their potential and achieve new educational and career goals.

Free Minds serves 16 and 17 year old males who have been charged and incarcerated as adults at the DC Jail. Over the last six years, Free Minds has served more than 300 youths through the Book Club, Continuing Support, and Reentry Support phases of our program.

Our Programs

Book Club & Writing Workshop

Free Minds recognizes that books and creative writing have the incredible power to teach, build community, inspire individuals and change lives. The Book Club & Writing Workshop meets every week at the DC Jail where approximately 14 juvenile inmates come together to discuss a work of contemporary literature —an exciting experience for youths who have often had little meaningful exposure to books. The Book Club operates democratically with books chosen by majority vote. Members have chosen books like Down These Mean Streets, Piri Thomas’ raw account of growing up in Harlem, which allow them to feel a personal connection with a book and its author, often for the first time. Click here for a full list of books our members have read.

Throughout the year Free Minds members host visits by published authors, to help strengthen the bonds they are developing with literature. Past visitors have included Kenji Jasper (Dark, Dakota Grand, Seeking Salamanca Mitchell,The House on Childress Street and Snow), James McBride (The Color Of Water and Miracle at St. Anna), Etan Thomas (More Than An Athlete) Dave Slater (contributing writer to DC Noir) and Ellen McCarthy (staff writer for The Washington Post).

Each week, members also express themselves through a creative writing exercise allowing them to reflect upon the choices they have made, the consequences of their actions, and their dreams for the future. By reading their work aloud, members develop and practice the virtues of leadership, honesty, trust, and tolerance—a rare opportunity in an often-harsh environment.

Each Book Club member receives a new dictionary and journal to encourage daily reading and writing.

Free Minds also meets individually with each new Book Club member to assist him in setting educational and vocational goals and developing an action plan to achieve them.

Continuing Support

The love for reading and writing that develops among so many members must continue to be cultivated. Each month, through the Continuing Support Program, Free Minds sends one new book, discussion questions, creative writing and book review assignments to members who have turned 18 and been transferred to federal prison. Through regular written correspondence, Free Minds strengthens relationships first built at the DC Jail and continues to monitor and assist members’ progress toward achieving their goals. Those members who request it are also matched with volunteer pen pals from the local DC community who correspond regularly with them to support and encourage their personal growth.

Reentry Support

While some Free Minds members receive lengthy sentences and are eventually transferred to federal prison, many others are released within the same year they are arrested. Juveniles who are charged as adults serve an average of four years before they are released into the community. Building upon progress made in the Book Club and Continuing Support Programs, Free Minds connects its recently released members to the resources and programs in the community that will help them achieve their educational and career goals. Free Minds has developed a wide network of reentry resources to better serve our members, including: public charter schools; GED programs; community colleges; SAT and college preparation programs; and adult basic education, vocational and job training programs.

Success Stories

The success of many Free Minds graduates demonstrates that with the appropriate support these youths can positively redirect their lives. After release, our graduates have gone on to:

• Achieve General Equivalency Diplomas (GED’s)
• Return to study at public high schools in Washington, DC
• Apply and be accepted to DC Public Charter Schools
• Enter vocational schools
• Obtain full-time employment
• Study for the SAT and ACT exams
• Apply and be accepted to professional schools

With the help of Free Minds, graduates have also:

• Strengthened family bonds
• Taken a more active role in their children’s lives
• Changed attitudes toward academic achievement
• Developed greater self-awareness and self-esteem
• Built critical job-interview, public speaking and communication skills
• Become positive role models for younger siblings
• Continued reading and writing poetry

Drew

“Before I got locked up, I lived a cruddy street life. I didn’t really have any respect for anybody. I just lived day by day without a plan.”

At left: Drew at a ceremony recognizing the receipt of his GED

Drew, now 20, was arrested and charged as an adult for a robbery in 2004 at the age of 17. He hated school, and dropped out in the 10th grade. He especially hated to read. The only reason he came to Free Minds at all was to get out of his cell at the DC Jail for a couple of hours. He was not interested in reading the books or completing the writing assignments.

Gradually, Drew’s outlook began to change. For the first time in his life, he read a book from start to finish. He started writing poetry, which he says helped him to understand other writers. His favorite poem is one that he wrote: “I Am.” Drew now believes that books and reading can change lives. “You can watch TV and you see the pictures in your eyes, but when you’re reading a book, you can imagine the way the story goes,” he says.

Free Minds remained in contact with Drew after his transfer to a juvenile corrections school in Wisconsin in late 2004, and continued to write to him and send him books. In a letter he wrote that first year, he said: “If I had this type of support when I was in the streets I would not be in jail right now...Y’all got me over here writing letters, poems and stories. I think I could be a writer! It makes me feel so happy, I never had no one who cared about my education. So y’all really touch my heart.”

In January 2006 Drew passed the GED exam. He was released in July and returned to Washington. He recently enrolled in barber school and landed a fulltime job at a new DC restaurant. Drew plans to attend college to study business and eventually open his own barber shop. He also hopes to play as much basketball as possible.

Harold

“What was important to me then was making money to be the flyest kid on the block.... Now, I would like to have a nice family, get a degree in Recreation & Leisure Studies, help someone else that may be headed the same direction I went, own a home, and just live a normal life.”

Harold was charged and incarcerated as an adult in the DC Jail at the age of 17. At the time, he had completed the 10th grade. “I almost got a scholarship for basketball, but I was too caught up in the streets,” he wrote in a letter to a Free Minds pen pal.

Before joining the Free Minds Book Club, Harold had never read an entire book before. One of the first books he read in full was The Coldest Winter Ever, by Sister Souljah. He was captivated by the novel’s main character, Winter Santiaga.

Harold was transferred to a federal prison in North Carolina and now reads several books each month. One of Harold’s poems, “In My Tomorrow” was an audience favorite at the Free Minds Third Annual Poetry Reading.

“Before I came to Free Minds, I was writing raps and stuff like that,” he says. “Free Minds helped me discover that I can really get somewhere by writing positively. It opens your mind up and lets people see the type of things you think about.”

In March 2006, Harold passed the GED examination. “The GED is just an infant step compared to what I want to do educationally. I would love to go to college,” says Harold. He is currently hard at work studying for the SAT test. “In the future I plan to be successful in whatever I choose to do,” he says.

Demetrius - an update

Demetrius was featured on our home page in the spring of 2005 as he completed a three-year sentence. He was released in May 2006. Following is an update of his inspiring story:

“I had no positive goals for my life (when I was arrested). Reading and writing allowed me to visualize all of the possibilities though. I didn’t know what I could do until I tried it!”

–Demetrius, age 21

At left: Demetrius in the kitchen of DC Restaurant, Zaytinya with mentor, Chef Abdul

Demetrius came to Free Minds after being charged and incarcerated as an adult at the age of 17 in March 2003. A junior high school drop out, Demetrius had never read an entire book before arriving at the DC Jail. He was forever hooked after reading and discussing Nathan McCall’s Makes Me Wanna Holler with the Free Minds Book Club. He began reading every book he could get his hands on, once writing to us from federal prison saying: “I have been reading books in less than two days now…I can’t wait to get to a place where there are thousands of books and I can just help myself.”

Demetrius also became excited about creative writing. In September 2003, Free Minds sent one of his essays to the Brown Alumni Monthly Magazine where it was published. Graduation Day described Demetrius’s reaction to a photo of a graduate throwing his cap in the air at a Brown University commencement ceremony. He wrote about how happy the student must have felt and how proud his family must have been. Most importantly, he expressed his own desire to continue his education. Reader Julie Zwillich was touched by Demetrius’s essay. She contacted Free Minds asking how she could help Demetrius, thus beginning a pen pal friendship that continues to this day. Julie, a food and cooking aficionado, corresponded enthusiastically with Demetrius about his dream of becoming a chef. He began reading Gourmet Magazine and perusing stacks of cookbooks.

With the encouragement of Julie and Free Minds, Demetrius spent over a year studying for his GED while incarcerated. In December 2005, he passed the exam and received his GED. Immediately he began applying to culinary schools. In January 2006, Demetrius was accepted to one of the top culinary schools in the country —the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. Because he was unable to raise the extensive funds needed for tuition though, he instead returned to Washington, DC after his release in May 2006.

Not one to give up easily, within days of his return, Demetrius was pounding the pavement of downtown DC filling out applications for entry-level restaurant jobs. In June, Demetrius landed a fulltime prep cook position in the kitchen of Chef Jose Andres’s highly acclaimed restaurant, Zaytinya. Thanks to the compassion of so many people who believed in Demetrius, and to his own perseverance, Demetrius is now realizing his dream and becoming a chef.

© Copyright 2006 Free Minds Book Club and Writing Workshop