A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison by Reginald Dwayne Betts
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
There are so many prison memoirs out there that it has easily become its own sub-genre. So, how does one distinguish their prison story from everyone else’s? In this poignant, but uneven, memoir, Mr. Betts takes us into prison as well as into the mind and heart of a teenager whose transition from boy to man happens behind bars.
One of the dirty secrets of the American justice system is how many states can charge juveniles as adults. According to the Equal Justice Initiative, 13 states have no minimum age for adult prosecution while many states have a minimum age as young as 10, 12, or 13. This means that a lot of juveniles get charged with adult crimes, receive adult sentences, and even get sent to adult jails. Though he was a star student at his school, Dwayne Betts became one of these juveniles after a moment teenage madness leads him to carjack an unarmed man with a gun. He then spends the better part of a decade, from his later teen years to his early adult years, in both juvenile detention and then adult prison.
Through this memoir, Mr. Betts both gives us a window into his development during these critical years and tries to examine what it all meant and whether or not he could come out better on the other side. Mr. Betts also thinks about whether his father’s previous incarceration had doomed him to prison as well or if this was a mistake solely on how own part. He also gives us a window into the importance of reading in prison as it became both a means of his escape from the daily reality of prison as well as his gateway into his future career as a writer.
For those who have read any other prison memoirs, much of what is covered in this book should be familiar. The daily beats of prison life and the internal wrangling are very common for this genre, though the perspective of prison life from a teenager’s point of view is unique and that unique POV helps to distinguish it from others. However, there is some unusual pacing in this book. The narrative moves at a plodding, glacial pace for about 90% of the book, with Mr. Betts constantly dwelling on the crime that put him in jail, life in prison, and much else. Occasionally there is the transfer from one prison to another to break things up, including a transfer to a maximum-security prison after some bogus citations by prison guards. Time does not seem to matter much in this portion of the book. But the last 10% of the book suddenly pivots into hyperdrive as Mr. Betts’ release date approaches and he begins to look to the future. I couldn’t help but feel a great deal of whiplash from the slow of the beginning to the quick pace at the end.
Overall, this is a decent memoir that is very thoughtful, but employs some unusual pacing. It should make you question our country’s policy of charging minors as adults and can be a great supplement to books such as The Sun Does Shine and Just Mercy.
