"We want to make that opportunity present, anybody's experience of incarceration," he says. "The wall that separates on prisoners from those on the outside becomes far more porous with a project like this" The goal is to build 10,000 libraries across the U.S., including prisons in Connecticut and Colorado.
Dwayne Betts was a 16-year-old in solitary confinement when a fellow inmate slid a book of poetry under his cell door. What happened next is an astounding story of transformation: from desperation to the discovery of beauty, even behind bars. Listen as the lawyer, prison reform advocate, and award-winning poet explains to EconTalk host Russ Roberts why he's on a mission to bring books--and beauty--into prisons. They also discuss Betts's latest book, Redaction, a collaboration with the artist Titus Kaphar.