SAM DINGMAN: A few weeks ago, the Freedom Reads literary competition announced the shortlist for their 2025 prize. It's the second year of the competition, which claims to be the first of its kind to be judged exclusively by incarcerated people.
The four finalists were announced by the Freedom Reads Selection Committee, and I recently spoke to one of the members of that committee, Chrystal Capilla.
Capilla, who now goes by the name Alex, is currently serving time at a prison in Perryville [in Goodyear]. She is 10 years into a decadeslong sentence for her role in a violent robbery that left two people dead.
And when we spoke, I asked her what appealed to her about serving as a judge for this competition.
ALEX CAPILLA: To be honest with you, having our point of view valued as a person that's incarcerated is completely mind-blowing to me. It was one of the appeals that had drawn me into the program in the first place. To actually know that our voices would be heard more than just in prison, out there publicly as well. It was very moving and it was, honestly, very different. Like, we got to actually judge something other than being judged, if that makes any sense.
DINGMAN: That does make sense. That does make sense. You know, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but I'm imagining that when you're incarcerated, there's probably a lot of people who are not incarcerated who have just totally fantastical ideas about what life in prison is like. And it strikes me as rather humanizing to present this version of life in prison. Where it's like, yeah, we do what you do — we sit and read books and think about them.
CAPILLA: Yeah, and we talk about them. That was even more mind-blowing, when we actually got to speak about the books that we read together as a group. It was crazy. Like it felt like we were almost not incarcerated for a moment.
DINGMAN: Wow. What did — what about it felt like you were not incarcerated? Can you say more about that?
CAPILLA: I wouldn't say the human interaction without thinking about the fact that we were in prison talking about books. It was kind of like an escape, because books are my escape from here. I read a lot of books. So I feel like it was just something that drew us together. And kind of elevated our — like, the mindset that we were in, even though we were still in prison. It kind of took us out to like the free world where we were talking about books. Like if we were actually at a normal book club.
DINGMAN: So, were you a big reader before you got to prison or was reading something that you found once you were there?
CAPILLA: I actually liked reading books out there on all the "Harry Potter" series and the "Twilight" series. Like, I used to read books a lot very out there. So coming into prison, finding people that have never read books before, that have never been interested in them. And like one of my best friends actually didn't like books, but then she started reading and she actually like likes them a lot now. So that's something that we have in common.
DINGMAN: Do you feel like your relationship to the books — it sounds like you're a big fiction reader. Did your relationship to reading change in prison versus the role that it played in your life outside of prison?
CAPILLA: Honestly, yes. So, most of the books that I like reading now are based either like on the real person. I like knowing about like their real stories. I don't really like reading like fiction anymore. I like non-fiction.
DINGMAN: Uh-huh. Anything in particular that you've read in narrative nonfiction recently that you'd recommend? I'm a big narrative non-fiction reader myself.
CAPILLA: I read ... the one that I have from the book club. ... [Astrid Roemer, "On a Woman's Madness."] ... I'm actually stuck between reading that one again and then there's another one that my friend wants me to read, but I don't remember the title of it. It's an autobiography by some lady. I don't remember, but she was kidnapped and then it was just like, it's like a based on a true story type of movie ...
DINGMAN: ... That's a good segue to talking about your top four here. Tell me about "On a Woman's Madness." What did you like about it?
CAPILLA: I just liked that it was raw and real. And it didn't like — it wasn't like one of those fairy tale movies where like everything has glitter and glam, and everything's going to turn out the way you expect. It's about basically this one main character. Basically the things that she went through in life: the trauma, the ups, the downs, the things that have happened to her, the abuse ... vAnd it kind of reminds me a lot about the women that are here, actually.
DINGMAN: Wow, let's talk about some of the other ones on the list. You've also listed "Blackouts" by Justin Torres.
CAPILLA: That book, the "Blackouts" by Justin Torres, was an autobiography of a Black man that was actually gay. I wasn't brought up, I wasn't allowed to like be thinking about like, oh, guys can be with guys or girls can be with girls. Like very culture aspect as Mexican, like that wasn't a thing back in the day. So now it's like more common. Like everybody can be anything that they want to be now. And so the book kind of touches on like not being able to share those things with other people. And then have — finally finding someone to share that history with was, like, completely different. It was just like a new world, like something that hadn't been discovered yet.
DINGMAN: Yeah, well, if I'm hearing you right for you, it was maybe a little bit of an exposure to a world that you —
CAPILLA: I knew nothing about.
DINGMAN: Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's always the best when a book can do that.
CAPILLA: It educates you. ... It doesn't keep you from being in the dark. It brings things to light that you've never would have even thought about or been exposed to because you were never around it. And it's actually — was very educational for me to read it.
DINGMAN: So let's see, there's two other books here. There's "Chain Gang All-Stars." Tell us about "Chain Gang All-Stars."
CAPILLA: That was my favorite book, because I'm incarcerated. Like the book is basically — kind of like what is that one TV show called the one where they kill — "The Purge." That's kind of what that book reminds me of in prison. ... And it was showing like, oh, you messed up so many times, oh, you're gonna have to go to this place where you have to fight for your life in order to be able to get out.
And it was just crazy, 'cause like sometimes it feels like that when you're in here. But it's like not like you're physically fighting, but you're like mentally fighting all these things to make sure that you don't go down backwards.
DINGMAN: Yeah, and then last one would be "This Other Eden." Tell us about that book.
CAPILLA: "This Other Eden" is a book about heaven, basically. And it was telling you the history of Jesus and God and like everything, it was just reading you all these things. And I'm a very spiritual person, so of course that book was gonna be in my top four.
DINGMAN: Would you say this book changed your dynamic around spirituality or —?
CAPILLA: It was basically confirming everything that I believe.
DINGMAN: Yeah, that's that's another wonderful thing that a really good book can do, right? ... I mean sometimes it exposes you to a new perspective that you haven't considered, and sometimes it upholds beliefs that you already have and shows you —
CAPILLA: And it makes them stronger.
DINGMAN: Yeah. Well, last question for you, Alex. You have said that you're — I know you're a mom. And that you're determined not to let your time being incarcerated define you. That's something I read somewhere that you had said in another interview. How does this project, the Freedom Reads Project, play into that for you?
CAPILLA: It gives me somethingto do as in a positive way. It allows me to create good friendships with people that are like-minded that want better for themselves. It allows us to reach beyond this place, reach beyond these bars, and actually, like, get to know people as humans. Not as people as who they were as their cases, as their mistakes. Just because I'm incarcerated doesn't mean I'm not human.
DINGMAN: Well, Alex Capilla is a member of the judging committee for the Inside Literary Prize. Alex, thank you so much.
CAPILLA: You're welcome.
