Dwayne Betts

Member
Written By Justice Collaboratory

Founder and Director of Freedom Reads • reginald.betts@yale.edu • LinkedIn • Twitter

Reginald Dwayne Betts is a poet and lawyer. He is the Founder and Director of Freedom Reads, an initiative out of the Yale Law School’s Justice Collaboratory to radically transform the access to literature in prisons.

For more than 20 years, he has used his poetry and essays to explore the world of prison and the effects of violence and incarceration on American society. The author of a memoir and three collections of poetry, his latest collection of poetry, Felon, explores the post incarceration experience and lingering consequences of a criminal record. In 2019, Betts won the National Magazine Award in the Essays and Criticism category for his New York Times Magazine essay that chronicles his journey from prison to becoming a licensed attorney. He is a 2018 Guggenheim Fellow and a 2018 Emerson Fellow at New America and holds a J.D. from Yale Law School.

Projects

Featured
Freedom Reads
Freedom Reads

Freedom Reads harnesses the power of literature to counter what prison does to the spirit. In the recognition that reading affirms our dignity, strengthens our sense of self and lets us access our authentic interests, Freedom Reads is placing 500-book Freedom Libraries in prisons across the country.

Read More →

In the News

Featured
Reginald Dwayne Betts on the Freedom Library

NPR | Reginald Dwayne Betts speaks to NPR's Here and Now about the new Freedom Library installation at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.

‘Freedom Libraries’ aim to transform prisons, 500 books at a time

Washington Post | Dwayne Betts talks about Freedom Reads and his new exhibit at the National Building Museum in D.C.

Malcolm X’s former prison cell becomes first of 1,000 planned ‘freedom libraries’

The Guardian (UK) | The first of the planned amenities for US prisoners opens in the Massachusetts jail where the campaigner was incarcerated in the 1940s.

Justice Collaboratory
Previous

Monica C. Bell
Next

Vitor Blotta