Reginald Dwayne Betts Interview: Redefining Redemption by Finding Poetry in Prison

Reginald Dwayne Betts remembers being tried as an adult and sent to prison for carjacking at the age of 16 and how that ultimately led him to become a writer. Topics covered include prison reform, the power of a poem, family, and what it means to be a criminal in America.

Reginald Dwayne Betts is an award-winning poet and attorney, founder and executive director of Freedom Reads, a nonprofit organization that provides access to literature in prisons through the installation of Freedom Libraries across the country. For more than 20 years, he has used his poetry and essays to explore the world of prisons and the effects of violence and incarceration on American society. He transformed his latest poetry collection, Felon: Poems, into a one-man theater show that explores the post-incarceration experience and lingering consequences of a criminal record through poetry, stories, and timeless, transcendental art of papermaking. He received the 2021 MacArthur Fellowship Award.

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Reginald Dwayne Betts, poet and lawyer
Interviewed by: Noah Remnick
Interview date: September 15, 2022

00:00 Prison reform
03:30 The role of art
05:43 Can the prison be reformed?
06:41 Growing up in Maryland
09:08 Family
16:58 Finding poetry in prison
10:07 p.m. Writing letters and building friendships
25:21 Carjacking and arrest
30:21 Does prison dull creativity?
33:17 Choosing the name Shahid
35:11 Criminal etiquette
38:21 Meet your wife
41:43 Paternity
46:41 Relationship with mother
49:37 Poetry
56:08 Yale Law School
58:35 Poetry and the law
01:00:44 Criminal justice system
01:02:28 Navigating elite establishments
01:05:18 Violent and non-violent crimes
01:08:26 Managing harm
01:09:37 Prison abolition
01:16:09 “For Bail Denied” by Felon