Library of Virginia Honors Reginald Dwayne Betts

07.2024

The Library of Virginia recently announced that poet and lawyer Reginald Dwayne Betts, founder and CEO of Freedom Reads, will be honored with the Library’s honorary Patron of Letters degree. The Patron of Letters degree, granted by the Library Board, is the Library of Virginia’s highest honor. 

“Dwayne Betts is a powerful example of how literature and access to libraries can transform lives,” said C. Paul Brockwell Jr., chair of the Library Board. “We are honored to celebrate his work to increase access to literature and the many individuals who will be inspired by libraries he’s established.”

Betts, who was sentenced as an adult in Virginia to nine years in prison at age 16, founded the nonprofit

Freedom Reads to empower people in prison through literature to imagine new possibilities for their lives. Freedom Reads has transformed prisoners’ access to literature by opening more than 300 Freedom Libraries in prisons nationwide. Fifty-six of the Freedom Libraries are located in Virginia prisons.

A Yale Law School graduate and 2021 MacArthur Fellow, Betts has also authored numerous works exploring the world of prison and the effects of violence and incarceration on American society.