While the writers for Longmire are busy cooking up the popular crime drama's fourth season for Netflix, author Craig Johnson took to the road visiting Wyoming state prisons this week.

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The television program, which survived three seasons on A&E before being cancelled and subsequently picked up by Netflix earlier this year, is based on Johnson's series of crime novels.

While producers for the axed show worked to find a new network this fall, Johnson continued his book tour, which included 63 state libraries and four Wyoming prisons.

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"Many of them have more than just a glancing blow of the stuff I write about," said Johnson of the inmates in an interview with the Idaho Statesman on Saturday.

"They're not bad people," he added. "They've just made bad choices or were unfortunate. It's great they have the chance to do something different, not only to read, but to contemplate the idea of writing themselves."

Longmire has helped to shape the public image of Wyoming over the last three years, both as a television show and as a book series.

"When you love a place, you definitely don't want to over-romanticize it," explained Johnson. "I want to make it as real as it possibly can be, with both the good and the bad."

With production scheduled to begin in March, Longmire will likely return for a fourth season on Netflix during the second half of 2015.

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Longmire, Netflix, Television