AI Summary
5 min readIn 2021, the Mellon Foundation asked poet Reginald Dwayne Betts a question he had never been asked before: "What would you do if money wasn't an issue for people who were incarcerated?" Betts, who was sentenced to nine years in prison at age 16 for an armed carjacking, had spent decades inventing his life—going to college, earning a PhD and law degree, writing poetry, and raising sons—all while his criminal record made basic survival a constant negotiation. The question was the first time someone asked him to dream for others, not just for himself. His answer: "We put millions of people in prison. I would put millions of books in a prison."
Books as a pathway to freedom
Betts describes books as a "means of survival," a claim rooted in his own experience of solitary confinement, where books were not allowed. He argues that the fundamental thing connecting people who love books is not skin color, culture, or profession, but "the ability to be touched by story." A colleague once wrote to him that books were "the source of the world that was missing." Betts sees reading as a promise: "If you give me your time and your attention, I will transform how you see a world in a life."
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What you'll learn
- 1 (01:26) **The Origin Story: Incarceration and the Forbidden Window** - Reginald Dwayne Betts describes being incarcerated at 16 and how books, the one thing that offered a window to other worlds, were not allowed in solitary confinement.
- 2 (02:19) **Defining the Core Belief: Books as Survival and Connection** - Betts argues that the fundamental human connection isn't race or culture, but the ability to be "touched by story."
- 3 (04:02) **The Reading Crisis vs. The Real Problem: Post-Conversation** - When asked about declining literacy and attention spans, Betts reframes the issue, arguing the real risk is becoming "post talking to each other."
- 4 (05:21) **How Freedom Libraries Work: Design as a Statement of Worth** - Betts details the physical and philosophical design of the freedom libraries, which are handcrafted wooden units that create community spaces.
- 5 (08:56) **The Unlikely Partnership: Working with the Department of Corrections** - Betts explains how his team, which includes eight formerly incarcerated people, navigates collaboration with prison systems without leading with "demonization" or "animosity."
- 6 (09:36) **Returning to a Site of Trauma: Duty and a Deal with God** - When asked how he manages returning to a place that holds trauma, Betts frames it as a duty and a way of "making peace with whatever deal I made with God."
- 7 (11:20) **The Profound Impact: Letters from Inside** - Betts shares the most moving feedback from the Freedom Libraries, including a letter from a man doing life who said he "never felt this free" and sent a thousand dollars.
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Show Notes
For poet and lawyer, Reginald Dwaye Betts, books meant freedom. After getting sentenced to 9 years in adult prison at 16, Dwayne felt a sense of hope and possibility whenever he was reading. Upon his release he founded Freedom Reads, an organization that builds libraries within prisons across the country to provide a physical space where those incarcerated can read and dream together.
Today on the show, Dwayne joins Brittany to discuss how books and language can help us transform our reality.
You can learn more about Dwayne's journey in his documentary, March Forth.
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