VIP: Hill Harper writes to the 'Incarcerated Brother'

Among the many letters actor Hill Harper got from fans during his nine-year run on CSI: New York were those from incarcerated viewers.

Growing up with a psychiatrist father who worked with prisoners and ex-offenders, and a long-standing personal belief "that we're all in this togetherso why can't we try to help each other," the Brown and Harvard Law School graduate (Barack Obama was a classmate) decided to respond.

His latest book, Letters to an Incarcerated Brother Encouragement, Hope, and Healing for Inmates and Their Loved Ones, was released this week.

"I'm not the biggest star in the world, but I do have a platform," says Harper, who currently stars on the USA series Covert Affairs, "and if I can use that platform to help somebody else, why wouldn't I?"

And the book is not just for those locked up: "Many of us are in prisons that aren't built of iron bars that I think this book will help," says Harper, 47, the author of four previous New York Times best sellers.