Reginald Dwayne Betts is the author of a memoir, A Question of Freedom (Avery/Penguin 2009) and a collection of poetry, Shahid Reads His Own Palm (Alice James Books, 2010). In 2010 he was awarded an NAACP Image Award for A Question of Freedom, and a Soros Justice Fellowship to complete The Circumference of a Prison, a work of nonfiction exploring the criminal justice system’s role in the everyday lives of Americans who have not committed crimes.