Yusef Salaam is the inspirational speaker and prison abolitionist, who, at age fourteen was one of the five teenage boys wrongly convicted and sentenced to prison in the Central Park jogger case. In 1997, he left prison as an adult to a world he didn't fully recognize or understand. In 2002, the sentences for the Central Park Five were overturned, and all Five were exonerated for the crime they didn't commit.

Yusef now travels the world as an inspirational speaker, speaking about the effects of incarceration and the devastating impact of disenfranchisement. He is an advocate and educator on issues of mass incarceration, police brutality and misconduct, press ethics and bias, race and law, and the disparities in the criminal justice system, especially for men of color.

"An important memoir and call to action that sheds light on the personal injustices of mass incarceration."--Library Journal

"Warm, generous, and inspirational: a book for everyone."

"Salaam is able to convey hope and humor while illuminating the many ways violence thrives. Better, Not Bitter is a wake-up call that urges readers to "dream again" and to recognize the ways in which they've been imprisoned--whether in a physical prison, or by racism, capitalism, health issues or other societal ills and injustices."

"Better Not Bitter is equal parts, a luminous journey of awakening, and an indictment of a system that swallows boys and girls whole, only to spit out their broken bones. It is an urgent and poetic treatise on the human spirit's ability to make itself whole again over and over. I cried for the little boy who was imprisoned, and rejoiced for the man who emerged years later as a battle tested warrior for justice."

"An uplifting and hopeful book."