Pages for Freedom: Books for Detention Centers

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Hello everyone, my name is Alvin Lee and I'm launching this GoFundMe to help Americans after they’ve been released from prison. I’m the founder and president of the Student Justice Alliance, a legally registered 501c3 in the state of Maryland. Specifically, 100% of the amount raised in this GoFundMe will be donated to the Maryland Correctional Libraries in the form of legal aid, vocational, and educational books that inmates will be able to access while they are incarcerated.

While our justice system serves to punish violent criminals, there are people in our prisons who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. These people were forced to commit crimes out of the desperation of their situation. For these people, the justice system is not as effective at helping them after they served their time. To help the incarcerated reintegrate into society, we need to fix how their time is spent inside prison.

Oftentimes, initial offenses lead to re-offenses and longer jail sentences, both things that can be reduced through education and training. Too often, the incarcerated continue committing crimes and end up back in the system.

Our group wants to break that cycle.

As a high school student, the power of books and literature is not lost on me. Books can change lives, for all students, no matter where the learning happens. Books have the power to transform and reform.

With your generous support, we’ll buy legal aid, vocational, and educational books from used bookstores, law libraries, and universities and pay for the shipping to correctional facilities. Books can play a pivotal role in the rehabilitation process by providing inmates with knowledge, empowerment, and decision-making abilities. For those looking for a better future after they serve their sentence, books can be the only option in achieving it.

As our first project, we hope to grow the Student Justice Alliance into a student-led group focused on legal topics and civic engagement that allows students to participate in their communities in ways not traditionally offered in schools. If you want to learn more about our group, our current projects, and what drives us to connect with our communities, check out our website linked below.

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