Reading Dostoevsky Behind Bars (Update)

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 (dwaynebetts.com/bio), founder and director of Freedom Reads, award-winning poet, and lawyer.

• RESOURCES:• Doggerel: Poems (amzn.to/3F8iLhT), by Reginald Dwayne Betts (2025).
• “The Poet Writing on Prison Underwear (newyorker.com/magazine/2023/05/15/the-poet-wri…),” by Adam Iscoe (The New Yorker, 2023).
• The Voltage Effect (amzn.to/3YFT1PD), by John List (2022).
• “If We Truly Believe in Redemption and Second Chances, Parole Should Be Celebrated (washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/04/04/vincent…),” by Reginald Dwayne Betts (The Washington Post, 2021).
• Insurrections (amzn.to/3OFa7Zt), by Rion Scott (2016).
• The Secret History of Wonder Woman (amzn.to/3KLKLrO), by Jill Lepore (2014).
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (amzn.to/3s9Y0Mk), by Robert M. Pirsig (1974).
• The Black Poets (amzn.to/45fKQMt), by Dudley Randall (1971).
• “For Freckle-Faced Gerald (nytimes.com/2021/12/09/magazine/poem-for-freck…),” by Etheridge Knight (Poems from Prison, 1968).
• Felon: An America Washi Tale, (dwaynebetts.com/felon-the-play) by Reginald Dwayne Betts.
• Freedom Reads (freedomreads.org).

• EXTRAS:• “Can a Moonshot Approach to Mental Health Work? (freakonomics.com/podcast/can-a-moonshot-approa…)” by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023).
• “Can Data Keep People Out of Prison? (freakonomics.com/podcast/can-data-keep-people-…)” by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023).
• “The Price of Doing Business with John List (freakonomics.com/podcast/the-price-of-doing-bu…),” by People I (Mostly) Admire (2022).
• “Why Do Most Ideas Fail to Scale? (freakonomics.com/podcast/why-do-most-ideas-fai…)” by Freakonomics Radio (2022).

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