February 26, 2024 - Talking books behind bars with Reginald Dwayne Betts

The Culture Show Podcast · Feb 26, 2024 · 49m

When Reginald Dwayne Betts was 16 years old, he was an honors student. He was also arrested for carjacking. Prosecuted as an adult, he spent eight years in a Virginia prison, existing among grown up men. What got him through those years behind bars? Books.

Betts left prison a poet; he then became an Ivy League-educated Lawyer and now he’s on a mission to bring libraries into prisons with a first-of-its kind organization called “Freedom Reads.” It aims to radically transform access to literature for people behind bars. Ahead of his appearance tonight at The College of the Holy Cross, he joins…