Circling Disaster: Youth, Race, and the Failures of the American Justice System

But the message in The Circumference of a Prison is also one of hope, as Betts tells stories of the people and programs that are helping to change perceptions. By setting these stories against a context of shortsighted legislation and sensationalized media reports, Betts powerfully underscores the high societal cost of our nation’s practice of incarcerating juveniles with adults. Each year, nearly 200,000 juveniles are tried, sentenced, or locked in cells with adults in America—despite an abundance of research showing that young people confined in prison are as much as 34% more likely than young people held in juvenile detention centers to later reoffend. Dwayne Betts knows the hazards of juvenile incarceration firsthand.  Over the past four decades, the prison population in America has increased by more than 500 percent, leaving more than three million people confined or under state or federal supervision. Arrested at age sixteen, Betts served eight years in an adult prison, coming of age behind bars. The NAACP Image Award-–winning author of A Question of Freedom examines the failures—and broader repercussions—of America’s broken juvenile justice system. Today, Betts is free and a nationally known advocate for juvenile justice and prison reform. In The Circumference of a Pri

Praise for Dwayne Betts  “A searing and ultimately uplifting story.” —Hill Harper, bestselling author of Letters to a Young Brother   “Betts is a major new voice d I look forward to being inspired by him for years to come.” —Russell Simmons   “Required reading for all those young sons and grandsons and brothers and nephews and uncles who believe this can’t happen to them.” —The Baltimore Sun