Literature Behind Bars: Transforming Prison Through Libraries

Reginald Dwayne Betts spent more than eight years in prison. Today he's a Yale Law graduate, a MacArthur Fellow, and a poet. His nonprofit works to build libraries in prisons so that more incarcerated people can find hope.

• SOURCES:
  • Reginald Dwayne Betts, founder and director of Freedom Reads, award-winning poet, and lawyer.

• RESOURCES:
  • Doggerel: Poems, by Reginald Dwayne Betts (2025).
  • “The Poet Writing on Prison Underwear,” by Adam Iscoe (The New Yorker, 2023).
  • The Voltage Effect, by John List (2022).
  • “If We Truly Believe in Redemption and Second Chances, Parole Should Be Celebrated,” by Reginald Dwayne Betts (The Washington Post, 2021).
  • Insurrections, by Rion Scott (2016).
  • The Secret History of Wonder Woman, by Jill Lepore (2014).
  • Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values, by Robert M. Pirsig (1974).
  • The Black Poets, by Dudley Randall (1971).
  • “For Freckle-Faced Gerald,” by Etheridge Knight (Poems from Prison, 1968).
  • Felon: An America Washi Tale, by Reginald Dwayne Betts.
  • Freedom Reads.

• EXTRAS:
  • “Can a Moonshot Approach to Mental Health Work?” by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023).
  • “Can Data Keep People Out of Prison?” by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023).
  • “The Price of Doing Business with John List,” by People I (Mostly) Admire (2022).
  • “Why Do Most Ideas Fail to Scale?” by Freakonomics Radio (2022).