How a former Muncy inmate co-founded a record company for incarcerated artists

BL Shirelle’s hands couldn’t stop shaking. It was 2012, and she was back at State Correctional Institution Muncy feeling unable to face the lifers she met during her first stint in prison. But she couldn’t hide from Theresa Battles, a lifer serving decades in prison, who spotted her in the common area and pulled her aside for a conversation.

“She said, where’s your goals list? I can’t believe you ended up back here,” Shirelle said. “Write down your goals. Put them in alphabetical order.”

Shirelle gave Battles the sheet back with A through C completed. But Battles handed the sheet back to her, asking for goals D through F, and the next day, G through I.

Battles believed in Shirelle. She wanted her to do something with her life. This pushed Shirelle, who had been in and out of prison since she was 12, to think about changing. She knew it was time.

“I felt like a cancer,” Shirelle said. “I felt like I was just destructive to other people that I loved. I couldn’t live with that. So, I just decided I wasn’t gonna do it no more.”

Shirelle’s transformation led the Philadelphia native rapper to co-found FREER Records, a non-profit record label publishing the music of incarcerated musicians from 17 prisons in 10 states.

Shirelle helped build the first record label in the country for prison-impacted musicians, amplifying their stories to a growing audience of more than 100,000 streams on multiple music platforms, alongside musician and activist Fury Young, another formerly incarcerated artist.

Shirelle’s first arrest as an adult happened shortly after her 18th birthday. She was sentenced to six years for aggravated assault after getting into a shootout with an undercover cop in Germantown. She was released for 18 months, then arrested again for selling drugs.

Shirelle first connected with Young and Naomi Blount Wilson, a singer and lifer at Muncy, in 2015. After Shirelle and Young were released around the same time, the two worked closely together on a concept album called Die Jim Crow. It centered on mass incarceration from the perspective of inmates by telling a story of an unguided person who is taken to prison having to survive, and the challenges of reentering society.

Young first connected with Shirelle after coming across her TEDx Muncy performance published on YouTube in 2015. He wrote a letter to the group.

“I got a follow up letter from BL”. Young said. “That proved to be a history marking moment in both of our lives.”

At Muncy, Shirelle took note of the attitude the lifers had about them. She noticed how when they walked, their shoulders were back with pride, providing an example of the confidence Shirelle should embody on the outside.

“There’s a certain posture to a lifer.” Shirelle said. “When you see them age and they start hunching over, they still keep their head up.”

Shirelle honed her musical gifts in prison. Other inmates approached Shirelle if they wanted words written for a relative’s funeral, Shirelle said. She would write poems for the other inmates and even sing songs with them in the yard.

“I would ask them what their families were like and I’d make a nice poem for the family to read at the funeral,” Shirelle said. “Or I would walk the yard with my guitar, if anyone liked to sing, I would play the guitar while they sang.”

Shirelle was mentored by Wilson, who led Lady Lifers, a choir of women serving life sentences at Muncy who were also featured on TEDx Muncy. Wilson raised Shirelle like a cub and became one of the few motherly figures in her life, Shirelle said. Wilson was released in 2019, and Shirelle was able to tour with her mentor. Both joined Young in selling art, performing small concerts and touring prisons with Young to promote the Die Jim Crow album.

Wilson died in 2025 after being diagnosed with cancer. Shirelle spent many of Wilson’s final days by her side.

“It was my honor and my privilege to be there for her at that time.” Shirelle said. “She changed thousands of lives. I’m just one.”

Funded through grants, donations, and campaigns, FREER Records has published more than 65 artists who are incarcerated and 18 formerly incarcerated individuals. They have also provided instruments to inmates and offered recording opportunities in “mobile studios,” such as janitors’ closets within correctional facilities.

Dallas Bradley Smith, a singer and rapper under the name Dallas the Dove, joined FREER Records in 2022 to record Sigs on Seely St, a vibrant neo-soul extended play dedicated to domestic violence victims. She met Shirelle during her first sentence at SCI Cambridge, Pennsylvania’s other women’s prison.

“We ran back into each other at Muncy,” Dove said. “I like writing with her, we make some dope stuff together.”

The lifers believed in Shirelle as a woman and artist, Shirelle said, and their encouragement inspired her to impact many through FREER Records. Although it is challenging to gain equipment access in prisons, Shirelle believes the work is worth doing.

“We go wherever we are wanted.” Shirelle said. “There are still a lot of facilities that believe in art as healing.”