A review by helterskelliter
Felon: Poems by Reginald Dwayne Betts
5.0
“Dear Warden, my time been served, let me go…” (1)
This collection is a scathing and soulful critique of the harmful and lasting effects of incarceration, drug abuse, homelessness, and more on identity. Particularly, this collection focus on how mass incarceration and and unconscionable bail system have disenfranchised Black people since the founding of America.
I found this collection to be profound and moving. It asks me to re-examine justice in the face of so much human suffering; what could possibly be worth such a steep human cost? Especially, I found the redacted poetry to be thought-provoking and deeply uncomfortable and unsettling. There is so much documented injustice and so little recompense for it, if any at all. That’s what’s criminal.
I cannot highly recommend this collection enough! If you want a collection that vividly and brutally humanizes then prison industrial complex, this collection is for you. If you get the chance to hear Reginald Dwayne Betts talk on his work, please take it! An insightful interview he did on NPR led me to his work!
This collection is a scathing and soulful critique of the harmful and lasting effects of incarceration, drug abuse, homelessness, and more on identity. Particularly, this collection focus on how mass incarceration and and unconscionable bail system have disenfranchised Black people since the founding of America.
I found this collection to be profound and moving. It asks me to re-examine justice in the face of so much human suffering; what could possibly be worth such a steep human cost? Especially, I found the redacted poetry to be thought-provoking and deeply uncomfortable and unsettling. There is so much documented injustice and so little recompense for it, if any at all. That’s what’s criminal.
I cannot highly recommend this collection enough! If you want a collection that vividly and brutally humanizes then prison industrial complex, this collection is for you. If you get the chance to hear Reginald Dwayne Betts talk on his work, please take it! An insightful interview he did on NPR led me to his work!