WYFF highlights program that builds connections between incarcerated parents and their children

Riley’s Readers, a program crafted by Furman University’s Riley Institute Fellows, was featured on WYFF News 4. Riley’s Readers enables incarcerated parents to record their voices as they read stories to their children. The recordable books are then shared with the inmates’ children to create a connection that wouldn’t otherwise exist. Incarcerated parents are encouraged to include personal messages in addition to the storytelling. One father recorded, ‘”I love you. I just want you to know how amazing you are and how cool this is that I get to tell you that in a book.”’

As of 2023, about 500 books had been recorded and shared with children since the program was launched in 2016 by a cohort of The Riley Institute’s Diversity Leaders Initiative.