Best for: Someone interested in reading about the people fighting injustice, and those they are fighting for (both the innocent and the not so innocent). In a nutshell: Attorney Bryan Stevenson tells stories of his life fighting against a system set up to ignore the humanity in those who have been accused of – and sometimes committed – crimes. Line that sticks with me: (It’s a long one) “We emphasized the incongruity of not allowing children to smoke, drink, vote, drive without restrictions, give blood, […]
Prison Doesn’t Work – So What Do We Do?
Best for: People interested in what justice could look like. In a nutshell: Author Maya Schenwar – whose sister has been in and out of prison – explores what is wrong with our current system, as well as alternatives. Line that sticks with me: “Isolation does not ‘rehabilitate’ people. Disappearance does not deter harm. And prison does not keep us safe.” Why I chose it: A political podcast I used to listen to interviewed the author. It struck both my husband and I so much […]
A Colorblind Society is an Unjust Society
Michelle Alexander is a civil rights lawyer and law professor at The Ohio State University. Alexander first encountered the idea of a racial caste system when she saw a poster stapled to a telephone pole declaring that “The Drug War is the new Jim Crow.” At the time she thought it was hyperbole. After working in the criminal justice system for several years, her thinking had evolved from the system has a problem with racial bias to believing that mass incarceration is a “well-disguised system […]