"I read Sophie's Choice in 1996. It's 1998 when I'm at the first prison that I met," he says. "The thing that really turned me into a poet was I discovered at three's night, and he had this poem in a quote on for Freckler, face Gerald"
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.