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Books ignite the belief in a positive future

Reading creates empathy, drives literacy, and in some cases offers an escape. Freedom Reads, a program to be installed this week in juvenile and correctional facilities in Maryland, will bring dozens of new books -- and all the imagination they conjure -- to young people in the system. We talk to its founder, Reginald Dwayne Betts, and new secretary of Juvenile Services, Vincent Schiraldi.

Links: Freedom Reads, Banner articles: ‘I had to protect myself’: What Maryland is doing to stop kids from seeking guns; Juvenile services agency teaches kids to find their way on a Western Maryland lake

Sheilah Kast is the host of On The Record, Monday-Friday, 9:30-10:00 am.
Melissa Gerr is a Senior Producer for On the Record. She started in public media at Twin Cities Public Television in St. Paul, Minn., where she is from, and then worked as a field producer for Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland. She made the jump to audio-lover in Baltimore as a digital media editor at Mid-Atlantic Media and Laureate Education, Inc. and as a field producer for "Out of the Blocks." Her beat is typically the off-beat with an emphasis on science, culture and things that make you say, 'Wait, what?'