Lessons Between the Lines: What Freedom Reads Taught Me About Change
At Tsai CITY, our Social Innovation Internship program connects Yale students with organizations tackling complex challenges in creative ways. This past summer, Kiran Yeh (YC ’28) interned with Freedom Reads, an organization that builds libraries inside prisons and creates opportunities for incarcerated people to engage with literature, dialogue, and imagination.
In the reflection below, Kiran shares how her experience reshaped her understanding of social innovation—moving beyond systems and policies to focus on something even more fundamental: honoring each other’s humanity.
My passion for social innovation began in high school, where I majored in Law and Society. One class that especially shaped my thinking—though nearly all of them did—was Criminal Law. My teacher, a former lawyer with the Equal Justice Initiative, often spoke about criminal justice reform, introducing solutions such as creating more rehabilitative prisons, ending mandatory minimums, lowering or abolishing bail for minor offenses, strengthening public defense, and increasing police accountability.
At the time, I believed these solutions were the best ways to make the system more humane, effective, and just. And while they are certainly important, I learned this summer that criminal justice reform requires more than legal and systemic changes.
When I interviewed for an internship at Freedom Reads through the Tsai CITY Social Innovation Internship, I met with Steven Parkhurst, who would later become my supervisor. In that interview, he told me Freedom Reads isn’t, strictly speaking, a literary organization—it’s a prison organization, created for the people “inside”. While many prison advocacy organizations focus on legal work, this one serves incarcerated individuals by confronting what prison does to the spirit.
That conversation taught me my first lesson before I even started: impact doesn’t always come from the legal system. It can also come from everyday things that spark imagination and inspiration, sometimes more directly than law ever could. Legal reform may take years to create change, but bringing a single book into the prison walls can change a life in a day.
When I began my internship, I often described Freedom Reads as an organization that builds libraries in prisons to “restore dignity” to people on the inside. But during a communications meeting about the Inside Literary Prize—the first book award judged entirely by incarcerated people—the team made an important distinction. Freedom Reads does not bring dignity or humanity to people on the inside; instead, Freedom Reads offers is a vessel for people to rediscover and feel that dignity through literature, dialogue, and being truly heard.
I saw this most clearly in the more than 200 feedback forms from prize judges. Many wrote about their gratitude not only for the books, but for the chance to engage in meaningful discourse with others—to both critique and celebrate stories, to see themselves reflected in the novels, and to connect the narratives to their own experiences. They valued the fact that, during facilitated discussions, Freedom Reads staff truly listened to them. Their reflections resonated with my own experience in college seminars, where feeling heard, challenged, and engaged affirmed my own humanity.
As I’ve reflected on the incredible work Freedom Reads does, I realized its success comes from the fact that most of the team is system-impacted. Many have been incarcerated themselves and now dedicate their lives to giving back. Their lived experience makes them especially dedicated to their work, serving their community with empathy and vision.
This internship has reshaped my understanding of social innovation. Real change isn’t just about sweeping reforms; it’s about intentional, human-centered choices. Freedom Reads thrives because it meets people where they are, creates spaces for self-discovery, and is guided by those who have lived their realities of the system. Rather than focusing on creating a positive impact at the macro level, they focus on showing people that they are seen and valued on an individual level.
In any effort for change, the most powerful act is to honor each other’s humanity. This internship provided both a reminder and an opportunity to do that.
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The Social Innovation Internship, a partnership between Tsai CITY and the Yale Club of New Haven, connects New Haven–based entrepreneurial nonprofits, social enterprises, and social change organizations with motivated Yale College students for a summer internship focused on social innovation.
Written by Kiran Yeh (YC '28)