In 1996, journalist Kelli Taylor received an unsolicited letter from Glen McGinnis, a young man on death row in Texas for a crime committed when he was 17. She could have ignored it. Instead, she responded, and that simple decision to connect sparked a four-year relationship built around books and writing.
Despite Glen’s formal education ending at age 11, reading and writing opened entirely new worlds during his incarceration. When he was executed in 2000, Kelli and colleague Tara Libert made a promise: they would honor his memory by sharing the life-changing power of books and community with other young people facing similar circumstances.
In 2002, they founded Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop in DC.
At Full Sail Media, we’re honored to spotlight Free Minds as our December 2025 Changemaker community partner. This month, we spoke with Shahana Shah, their Director of Development, about an organization that’s spent 22 years proving that literature and creative expression can fundamentally redirect lives that society has written off.
More Than Books: A Comprehensive Approach
Free Minds now serves over 1,600 members annually across the DC Jail, juvenile detention facilities, the federal prison system, and the community through their reentry programs. Their mission extends beyond reading as they build community to foster personal development and systems change through the literary arts, workforce development, trauma healing, and member-led advocacy.
“Glen’s wish essentially was that they take this model and bring it to other incarcerated individuals to transform lives,” Shah explains. “That is what Free Minds has been able to do in DC specifically.”
Book Clubs: Democracy Behind Bars
Part of what makes Free Minds book clubs stand out is their democratic structure: members vote on which books to read, choosing contemporary works that reflect their own experiences.
“There’s agency in the voting process,” Shah explains. “Members might say, for example, they’re interested in Trevor Noah’s book. Born a Crime His book has been one that they resonate with due to experience with racism both in South Africa and the US or his closeness to his mother . The content layers with what they connect with. Knowing that book or another is of interest to the group, we’ll add it to our list to read and discuss.”
Past selections include An American Marriage by Tayari Jones, Free Cyntoia by Cyntoia Brown-Long, and Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime, books that allow members to see their experiences reflected on the page, often for the first time.
The voluntary nature makes the program especially powerful. “Everything is voluntary,” Shah emphasizes. “When they’re showing up, it’s because they are making an active choice to be part of a community and try something different. That sense of agency and investment in themselves and in the book club is crucial and fostering that agency is one of our foremost goals.”
Free Minds runs weekly clubs at the DC Jail and juvenile detention center, plus a long-distance correspondence program for members in federal prisons that sometimes find themselves hundreds or thousands of miles from home.
Writing Workshops: Finding Voice Through Poetry
The writing component emerged organically from those early exchanges between Kelli and Glen, who loved poetry. Today, creative writing has become central to how members process their experiences.
“We utilize bibliotherapy, which is the practice of using reading and writing as tools to develop empathy, insight, and healthy strategies for coping with difficult situations and healing from trauma,” Shah explains. “Through reading, people can connect with an author, a character, a story, and then through writing, people can become the author of their own story. Reading and writing are a way for people to envision new futures for themselves, and then to write those futures into existence.”
Members send their poems to Free Minds, where community volunteers provide handwritten feedback, including constructive criticism, encouragement, and personal reactions.
“We’ll type it up, print it out, and people will literally write on it: ‘This really resonated with me,’ or ‘Maybe expand here,'” Shah describes. “Members tell us they can’t wait for that feedback to come back to them. They feel seen. They feel like a human and a person again because somebody is interacting with their creative work.”
The impact is profound. “Mail day is literally their favorite day,” Shah shares. “It’s always uncertain whether you’re going to receive something, and when your name gets called, it becomes the most special day.”Five times a year, Free Minds publishes Connect magazine, written for and by members, which goes directly into prisons. The magazine features member poetry, updates, and stories that help to create connection across facility walls and the pride in seeing their writing published. It also solves a practical problem: prisons make receiving books surprisingly difficult, with strict rules about covers, paper types, and content.
Reentry: The Critical Bridge Home
Free Minds is there for members when they are released from prison and return home, knowing that release doesn’t always mean the end of challenges.
The organization provides comprehensive support including weekly reentry book clubs, job connections, vocational programs, skill-building workshops, case management, assistance with documents and benefits, credit-building programs, a member-led Black History Learning Group, and peer support networks.
The results are remarkable: 97% of Free Minds members home in the community are employed, in school, or enrolled in vocational programs. Their recidivism rate is just 8%, compared to 62% citywide.
“For members transferred to federal prisons far from DC—sometimes for decades, sometimes without a single visitor—Free Minds becomes family,” Shah explains. “When they come home and join programs and services through reentry, they often say we’re the only ones who understand what they’re going through. They feel they have a home with us.”
Advocacy: Changing the System
Free Minds actively work to change the systems that created these challenges. Their advocacy focuses on policies affecting their members directly.
“Advocacy is incredibly important,” Shah emphasizes. “We want to be on Capitol Hill as much as possible, bringing attention to how these laws will change the future of our community and for those currently incarcerated.”
One current focus is the Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act (IRAA) and Second Look Amendment Act, DC laws allowing individuals incarcerated with extreme sentences for crimes committed under age 25 to petition for resentencing . IRAA is currently at risk.
Free Minds also advocates against sending DC residents to distant federal prisons. “There’s an agreement with the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to keep individuals within 500 miles of DC” ,” Shah explains. “But that doesn’t always happen. Our members have been transferred to over 110 prisons across the country.
The consequences are severe. “When you take somebody out of their community and keep them from interacting with loved ones, it affects who they are mentally, how they’re able to prosper, how they can be successful when they come home. That’s why our commitment to our members is critical while they’re away and when they return.”
Join the Free Minds Community
Here are a few of the ways you can contribute to Free Minds’ mission.
Attend a Write Night: Monthly events where volunteers provide feedback on poetry from incarcerated members. The next Write Night is coming soon – keep an eye on Free Minds’ event page and sign up for their mailing list to be the first to know.
Host an “On the Same Page” Event: Bring Poet Ambassadors to your school, office, church, or organization to engage with youth violence and incarceration issues through poetry.
Support Through Sponsorship:
- Empowerment Sponsor ($5,000): Fund 500 books for 1,500+ students
- Transformation Sponsor ($1,000): Fund 100 books
- Change Sponsor ($250-$999): Fund 25-100 books
At Full Sail Media, we’re inspired by organizations like Free Minds that demonstrate how genuine human connection creates transformation that institutions alone cannot achieve. Just as we build authentic brand connections, Free Minds shows how building authentic community can save and redirect lives.
To learn more about Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop, visit freemindsbookclub.org.
