About Just Mercy
The US has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. The prison population has increased from 300,000 in the early 1970s to more than two million now. One in every 15 people is expected to go to prison. For black men, the most incarcerated group in America, this figure rises to one out of every three.
Bryan Stevenson grew up a member of a poor black community in the racially segregated South. He was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of the US’s criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young black man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, startling racial inequality, and legal brinksmanship — and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever.
Just Mercy is at once an unforgettable account of an idealistic, gifted lawyer’s coming of age, a moving portrait of the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of justice.
From the publisher.
Read the Book
Just Mercy (Adapted for Young Adults) by Call Number: KF373.S7435A3 2018ISBN: 9780525580034Publication Date: 2018-09-18
Events
Tuesday, September 24
Opening event featuring Raymond Santana
6:30 pm, Kulkarni Theater, SEC
Mr. Santana spent five years in prison for a crime he did not commit. One of the "Central Park Five," he and four other teenagers were accused and convicted of brutally attacking and sexually assaulting a female jogger in New York's Central Park on April 19, 1989. The group was coerced into confessing and were all tried and convicted, though no DNA evidence linked them to the crimes. Mr. Santana was only 14 years old at the time. He was tried as a juvenile and sentenced to 5-10 years in prison and was released in 1995. Seven years after his release, in 2002, a convicted murderer and rapist unrelated to the Central Park Five confessed that he alone was responsible for the crimes. Following this confession, DNA evidence was tested that tied Matias Reyes to the attack, and later that year, the Central Park Five were exonerated.
Thursday, October 24
Voices from the Justice System: An Ignite Session
11:30 am, Morrison Gallery, LIB 101
FYS Credit Available.
Join us for an Ignite session -- 5 minute presentations presented with automatically advancing slides -- that shows the many sides of the justice system. Presenters include researchers, practitioners, and formerly incarcerated individuals who will share their experience and knowledge about crime, punishment, and re-entry.
Thursday, November 7
Helping Children Cope with Trauma
11:30 am, Gallery Lounge, W107 Olmsted
FYS Credit Available.
Children with imprisoned siblings, parents, or family members often suffer silently and face a number of challenging circumstances, including trauma. This panel will explore the immediate and long-term effects of parental incarceration on children. Participants will discuss ways to support children in the aftermath of traumatic events, maintain a trauma-responsive school culture and provide needed services to at-risk children.
Thursday, January 23
Sarah Koenig, Host of Serial
6:00 pm, Kulkarni Theater, SEC
Sarah Koenig hosts Serial, a podcast phenomenon that tells one story week by week. Season One tells the story of Adnan Sayed, convicted as a teenager of killing his high school girlfriend Hae Min Lee. Sayed, was sentenced to life in prison, but he claims he is innocent. Sarah revisited the criminal justice system in Season Three, recorded in Cleveland, OH. It follows the journey of the justice system for many people and how it does or does not work in their favor. The podcast has won numerous broadcasting awards including the first Peabody ever awarded to a podcast. Prior to Serial, Sarah was a producer on the podcast This American Life.
Speaker Information: Raymond Santana
Raymond Santana will speak at 6:30 pm on Tuesday, September 24 in the SEC Kulkarni Theater.
Speaker Information: Sarah Koenig
Sarah Koenig will speak on Thursday, January 23 at 6:00 pm in the SEC Kulkarni Theater.
- Serial PodcastSeason 3 is most relevant to Just Mercy.
Content and Support for Our Programming
Please be advised that this year's title selection and the associated themes deal with imprisonment, wrongful convictions, murder, sexual assault, and other challenging topics. Programming may not be suitable for all audiences.
If you would like to speak with a counselor after any programming or after reading the book and associated materials, please utilize the resources below.
- Penn State Harrisburg Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS)For currently enrolled Penn State Harrisburg students. Access counseling, crisis intervention, drug and alcohol counseling, and psychological services.
- Penn State University Employee Assistance Program (EAS)For Penn State employees, access free short-term counseling through Health Advocate as part of Penn State benefits. Counseling is available in person, by phone, or via email.
Book Chapter Sources
Information for each chapter includes links to reports and news articles referenced by Just Mercy author Bryan Stevenson within the text of each chapter, and provided in each chapter's notes section at the end of the book. Additionally, songs, pictures, news items, and other media are included for context when available and appropriate. For more information about the notes, be sure to check the Notes section of the book.
Introduction: Higher Ground
Chapter One: Mockingbird Players
Chapter Two: Stand
Chapter Three: Trials and Tribulations
No Equal Justice by Call Number: HV9950 .C58 1999ISBN: 1565844734Publication Date: 1999-01-01See chapter "Judgement and Discrimination," by David Cole.
Chapter Five: Of the Coming of John
Chapter Four: The Old Rugged Cross
Chapter Six: Surely Doomed
- The Death Penalty for Juveniles byCall Number: KF9227.C2S77 1987ISBN: 0253316154Publication Date: 1987-12-01
Chapter Seven: Justice Denied
The Oxford Handbook of Criminology by Call Number: HV6025 .O87 2002ISBN: 9780199590278Publication Date: 2012-05-23See Mediated Mayhem: Media, Crime and Criminal Justice by Greer, C. and Reiner, R, pages 245-278
Chapter Eight: All God's Children
- Stories of Scottsboro byCall Number: KF224.S34G66 1994ISBN: 0679407790Publication Date: 1994-03-15A narrative history of the infamous Scottsboro case, in which 9 African American youths were falsely accused of raping 2 white women in Alabama in 1931.
Chapter Nine: I'm Here
Chapter Ten: Mitigation
- Legal Rights and Mental-Health Care byCall Number: KF3828.H47 1983ISBN: 0669049107Publication Date: 1983-03-01
World Almanac and Encyclopedia (1901), Confederate Memorial Day Observations, page 29.
Chapter Eleven: I'll Fly Away
Note: The references for this chapter come from many small newspapers in Alabama. These publications are not available in the Penn State University Libraries Collection, nor on the open web.
Chapter Twelve: Mother, Mother
Prisoner Reentry and Social Capital by Call Number: HV9304.H38 2010ISBN: 9780739143889Publication Date: 2010-06-02
Note: The references in this chapter frequently mention the case State v. Colbey, which is not available in our holdings. Additionally there are references to local newspapers unavailable in our holdings.
Chapter Thirteen: Recovery
There are no notes for this chapter.
Chapter Fourteen: Cruel and Unusual
Chapter Fifteen: Broken
Chapter Sixteen: The Stonecatchers' Song of Sorrow
Key Information Sources
These databases, organizations, and other resources provide additional information about the topics addressed in the book. In many cases, these sources are cited by the author throughout the book, or were used to locate the sources cited.
Nonprofit Organizations
Juvenile Justice
- National Center for Juvenile JusticeNCJJ is a private, non-profit organization whose mission is effective justice for children and families through research and technical assistance. For four decades, NCJJ has conducted research and provided objective, factual information that professionals and decision makers in the juvenile and family justice system use to increase effectiveness.
- Juvenile Law CenterJuvenile Law Center advocates for rights, dignity, equity and opportunity for youth in the child welfare and justice systems. Founded in 1975, Juvenile Law Center is the first non-profit, public interest law firm for children in the country.
Civil Rights and Criminal Justice Reform
- The Equal Justice InitiativeThe Equal Justice Initiative is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society.
- The Sentencing ProjectFounded in 1986, The Sentencing Project works for a fair and effective U.S. criminal justice system by promoting reforms in sentencing policy, addressing unjust racial disparities and practices, and advocating for alternatives to incarceration.
- The Center for American ProgressThe Center for American Progress is an independent nonpartisan policy institute that is dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans, through bold, progressive ideas, as well as strong leadership and concerted action. Our aim is not just to change the conversation, but to change the country.
- National Urban LeagueThe National Urban League is a historic civil rights and urban advocacy organization with 90 affiliates serving 300 communities, providing direct services that impact and improve the lives of more than two million people nationwide.
- American Bar AssociationThe American Bar Association's mission is to serve equally our members, our profession and the public by defending liberty and delivering justice as the national representative of the legal profession
Death Penalty
- Death Penalty Information CenterThe Death Penalty Information Center is a national non-profit organization serving the media and the public with analysis and information on issues concerning capital punishment. Founded in 1990, the Center promotes informed discussion of the death penalty by preparing in-depth reports, conducting briefings for journalists, and serving as a resource to those working on this issue. The Center releases an annual report on the death penalty, highlighting significant developments and featuring the latest statistics.
- The Innocence ProjectThe Innocence Project, founded in 1992 by Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck at Cardozo School of Law, exonerates the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforms the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.
Library Databases
Government Agencies
- Department of JusticeDOJ aims to enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law; to ensure public safety against threats foreign and domestic; to provide federal leadership in preventing and controlling crime; to seek just punishment for those guilty of unlawful behavior; and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans.
- Bureau of Justice StatisticsA resource to collect, analyze, publish, and disseminate information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government. These data are critical to federal, state, and local policymakers in combating crime and ensuring that justice is both efficient and evenhanded.
- Bureau of PrisonsOur agency was established in 1930 to provide more progressive and humane care for federal inmates, to professionalize the prison service, and to ensure consistent and centralized administration of federal prisons.
- Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency PreventionOJJDP provides national leadership, coordination, and resources to prevent and respond to juvenile delinquency and victimization. OJJDP supports the efforts of states, tribes, and communities to develop and implement effective and equitable juvenile justice systems that enhance public safety, ensure youth are held appropriately accountable to both crime victims and communities, and empower youth to live productive, law-abiding lives.
Data Resources
These resources provide statistics and numerical data cited throughout the book about the criminal justice system.
Alabama State Prisons
- 2019 Department of Justice InvestigationThis report details civil rights violations within the Alabama State Prison System.
- Alabama Department of Corrections Monthly Statistical ReportsReports documenting all aspects of the Alabama Correctional system, including inmate demographics, incidents, and prison population/capacity.
Government Data
- Bureau of Justice StatisticsBJS collects, analyzes, publishes, and disseminates information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government. These data are critical to federal, state, and local policymakers in combating crime and ensuring that justice is both efficient and evenhanded.
- Census DataLearn about the demographic makeup of American communities.
- Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency PreventionResearch provides systematic and objective information about the risk factors that contribute to youth's involvement in the juvenile justice system and the protective factors that protect youth against system involvement. Research also helps us understand adolescent behaviors and system responses, including the interventions most likely to reduce youth involvement with the system and promote positive outcomes.
- Congressional Research ServiceAccess research reports on a variety of topics, including criminal justice, prepared for members of Congress.
Nonprofit Data Resources
- Death Penalty Information CenterStatistics and reports about the death penalty, including costs and public sentiment.
Further Reading
If you would like to learn or explore more about the criminal justice system, we recommend these books.
Nonfiction
The New Jim Crow by Call Number: HV9950.A437 2010ISBN: 9781595585301Publication Date: 2010-02-09As the United States celebrates the nation's triumph over race with the election of Barack Obama, the majority of young black men in major American cities are locked behind bars or have been labeled felons for life. Although Jim Crow laws have been wiped off the books, an astounding percentage of the African American community remains trapped in a subordinate status, much like their grandparents before them. In this incisive critique, former litigator-turned-legal-scholar Michelle Alexander provocatively argues that we have not ended racial caste in America: we have simply redesigned it. Alexander shows that, by targeting black men and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control, even as it formally adheres to the principle of color blindness.
A Perilous Path by Call Number: E185.61.I35 2018ISBN: 9781620973950Publication Date: 2018-03-06A no-holds-barred, red-hot discussion of race in America today from some of the leading names in the field, including the bestselling author of Just Mercy This blisteringly candid discussion of the American dilemma in the age of Trump brings together the head of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the former attorney general of the United States, a bestselling author and death penalty lawyer, and a star professor for an honest conversation the country desperately needs to hear. Drawing on their collective decades of work on civil rights issues as well as personal histories of rising from poverty and oppression, these leading lights of the legal profession and the fight for racial justice talk about the importance of reclaiming the racial narrative and keeping our eyes on the horizon as we work for justice in an unjust time. Covering topics as varied as "the commonality of pain," "when lawyers are heroes," and the concept of an "equality dividend" that is due to people of color for helping America brand itself internationally as a country of diversity and acceptance, Ifill, Lynch, Stevenson, and Thompson also explore topics such as "when did 'public' become a dirty word" (hint, it has something to do with serving people of color), "you know what Jeff Sessions is going to say," and "what it means to be a civil rights lawyer in the age of Trump." Building on Stevenson's hugely successful Just Mercy, Lynch's national platform at the Justice Department, Ifill's role as one of the leading defenders of civil rights in the country, and the occasion of Thompson's launch of a new center on race, inequality, and the law at the NYU School of Law, A Perilous Path will speak loudly and clearly to everyone concerned about America's perpetual fault line.
The Sun Does Shine: how I found life and freedom on death row by Call Number: KF224.H565H56 2018ISBN: 9781250124715Publication Date: 2018-03-27A powerful, revealing story of hope, love, justice, and the power of reading by a man who spent thirty years on death row for a crime he didn't commit.
In 1985, Anthony Ray Hinton was arrested and charged with two counts of capital murder in Alabama. Stunned, confused, and only twenty-nine years old, Hinton knew that it was a case of mistaken identity and believed that the truth would prove his innocence and ultimately set him free. But with no money and a different system of justice for a poor black man in the South, Hinton was sentenced to death by electrocution. He spent his first three years on Death Row at Holman State Prison in agonizing silence--full of despair and anger toward all those who had sent an innocent man to his death. But as Hinton realized and accepted his fate, he resolved not only to survive, but find a way to live on Death Row. For the next twenty-seven years he was a beacon--transforming not only his own spirit, but those of his fellow inmates, fifty-four of whom were executed mere feet from his cell. With the help of civil rights attorney and bestselling author of Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson, Hinton won his release in 2015.
American Prison by Call Number: HV9471.B384 2018ISBN: 9780735223585Publication Date: 2018-09-18A ground-breaking and brave inside reckoning with the nexus of prison and profit in America: in one Louisiana prison and over the course of our country's history. In 2014, Shane Bauer was hired for $9 an hour to work as an entry-level prison guard at a private prison in Winnfield, Louisiana. An award-winning investigative journalist, he used his real name; there was no meaningful background check. Four months later, his employment came to an abrupt end. But he had seen enough, and in short order he wrote an exposé about his experiences that won a National Magazine Award and became the most-read feature in the history of the magazine Mother Jones. Still, there was much more that he needed to say. In American Prison, Bauer weaves a much deeper reckoning with his experiences together with a thoroughly researched history of for-profit prisons in America from their origins in the decades before the Civil War. For, as he soon realized, we can't understand the cruelty of our current system and its place in the larger story of mass incarceration without understanding where it came from. Private prisons became entrenched in the South as part of a systemic effort to keep the African-American labor force in place in the aftermath of slavery, and the echoes of these shameful origins are with us still. The private prison system is deliberately unaccountable to public scrutiny. Private prisons are not incentivized to tend to the health of their inmates, or to feed them well, or to attract and retain a highly-trained prison staff. Though Bauer befriends some of his colleagues and sympathizes with their plight, the chronic dysfunction of their lives only adds to the prison's sense of chaos. To his horror, Bauer finds himself becoming crueler and more aggressive the longer he works in the prison, and he is far from alone. A blistering indictment of the private prison system, and the powerful forces that drive it, American Prison is a necessary human document about the true face of justice in America.
The Little Book of Restorative Justice by Call Number: HV8688.Z44 2002ISBN: 1561483761Publication Date: 2002-01-01Vengeance and bitter violence have had their turns -- without redemptive results. How should we as a society respond to wrongdoing? When a crime occurs or an injustice is done, what needs to happen? What does justice require? Howard Zehr, known worldwide for his pioneering work in transforming our understandings of justice, here proposes workable Principles and Practices for making restorative justice both possible and useful. First he explores how restorative justice is different from criminal justice. Then, before letting those appealing observations drift out of reach, into theoretical space, Zehr presents Restorative Justice Practices. Zehr undertakes a massive and complex subject and puts it in graspable form, without reducing or trivializing it. This is a handbook, a vehicle for moving our society toward healing and wholeness. This is a sourcebook, a starting point for handling brokenness with hard work and hope. This resource is also suitable for academic classes and workshops, for conferences and trainings. By the author of Changing Lenses; Transcending: Reflections of Crime Victims; and Doing Life: Reflections of Men and Women Serving Life Sentences.
No Matter How Loud I Shout by Call Number: HV9105.C2H85 1997ISBN: 0684811952Publication Date: 1997-05-07Now updated with a new introduction and afterword, this award-winning examination of the nation's largest juvenile criminal justice system in Los Angeles by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist is "an important book with a message of great urgency, especially to all concerned with the future of America's children" (Booklist). In an age when violence and crime by young people is again on the rise, No Matter How Loud I Shout offers a rare look inside the juvenile court system that deals with these children and the impact decisions made in the courts had on the rest of their lives. Granted unprecedented access to the Los Angeles Juvenile Court, including the judges, the probation officers, and the children themselves, Edward Humes creates an unforgettable portrait of a chaotic system that is neither saving our children in danger nor protecting us from adolescent violence. Yet he shows us there is also hope in the handful of courageous individuals working tirelessly to triumph over seemingly insurmountable odds. Weaving together a poignant, compelling narrative with razor-sharp investigative reporting, No Matter How Loud I Shout is a convincingly reported, profoundly disturbing discussion of the Los Angeles juvenile court's failings, providing terrifying evidence of the system's inability to slow juvenile crime or to make even a reasonable stab at rehabilitating troubled young offenders. Humes draws an alarming portrait of a judicial system in disarray.
Burning down the House by Call Number: HV9104.B4243 2014ISBN: 9781595589668Publication Date: 2014-06-03When teenagers scuffle during a basketball game, they are typically benched. But when Will got into it on the court, he and his rival were sprayed in the face at close range by a chemical similar to Mace, denied a shower for twenty-four hours, and then locked in solitary confinement for a month. One in three American children will be arrested by the time they are twenty-three, and many will spend time locked inside horrific detention centers that defy everything we know about how to rehabilitate young offenders. In a clear-eyed indictment of the juvenile justice system run amok, award-winning journalist Nell Bernstein shows that there is no right way to lock up a child. The very act of isolation denies delinquent children the thing that is most essential to their growth and rehabilitation: positive relationships with caring adults. Bernstein introduces us to youth across the nation who have suffered violence and psychological torture at the hands of the state. She presents these youths all as fully realized people, not victims. As they describe in their own voices their fight to maintain their humanity and protect their individuality in environments that would deny both, these young people offer a hopeful alternative to the doomed effort to reform a system that should only be dismantled. Burning Down the House is a clarion call to shut down our nation’s brutal and counterproductive juvenile prisons and bring our children home.
Fiction
An American Marriage by Call Number: PS3610.O63A84 2019ISBN: 9781616208684Publication Date: 2019-02-05Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to twelve years for a crime Celestial knows he didn't commit. Though fiercely independent, Celestial finds herself bereft and unmoored, taking comfort in Andre, her childhood friend, and best man at their wedding. As Roy's time in prison passes, she is unable to hold on to the love that has been her center. After five years, Roy's conviction is suddenly overturned, and he returns to Atlanta ready to resume their life together. This stirring love story is a profoundly insightful look into the hearts and minds of three people who are at once bound and separated by forces beyond their control. An American Marriage is a masterpiece of storytelling, an intimate look deep into the souls of people who must reckon with the past while moving forward--with hope and pain--into the future.
If Beale Street Could Talk by Call Number: PS3552.A45I34 2000ISBN: 0385334591Publication Date: 2000-06-13Like the blues--sweet, sad, and full of truth--this masterful work of fiction rocks us with powerful emotions. In it are anger and pain, but above all, love--the affirmative love of a woman for her man, the sustaining love of the black family. Fonny, a talented young artist, finds himself unjustly arrested and locked in New York's infamous Tombs. But his girlfriend, Tish, is determined to free him, and to have his baby, in this starkly realistic tale... a powerful indictment of American concepts of justice and punishment in our time.
The Mars Room by Call Number: PS3611.U7386M37 2018ISBN: 9781476756554Publication Date: 2018-05-01It's 2003 and Romy Hall is at the start of two consecutive life sentences at Stanville Women's Correctional Facility, deep in California's Central Valley. Outside is the world from which she has been severed: the San Francisco of her youth and her young son, Jackson. Inside is a new reality: thousands of women hustling for the bare essentials needed to survive; the bluffing and pageantry and casual acts of violence by guards and prisoners alike; and the deadpan absurdities of institutional living, which Kushner evokes with great humor and precision. Stunning and unsentimental, The Mars Room demonstrates new levels of mastery and depth in Kushner's work. It is audacious and tragic, propulsive and yet beautifully refined. As James Wood said in The New Yorker, her fiction "succeeds because it is so full of vibrantly different stories and histories, all of them particular, all of them brilliantly alive."
Children's and Young Adult Titles
Fiction
Picture Books
Knock Knock: My Dad's Dream for Me by Call Number: PZ7.B3805475Kn 2013ISBN: 9780316209175Publication Date: 2013-12-17
Juvenile Books
Kindness for Weakness by Call Number: PZ7.G61442Ki 2013ISBN: 9780385743242Publication Date: 2013-05-14
Letters from the Inside by Call Number: Fiction M2538let 1994ISBN: 0395689856Publication Date: 1994-09-26
Non-Fiction
- Just Mercy (Adapted for Young Adults) by Call Number: KF373.S7435A3 2018ISBN: 9780525580034Publication Date: 2018-09-18
Voices from the Street by Call Number: HV6439.U5V65 1996ISBN: 0316056340Publication Date: 1996-09-01
No Choirboy: murder, violence, and teenagers on death row by Call Number: HV8699.U5K84 2008ISBN: 9780805079500Publication Date: 2008-08-05
Adapted from Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson: Companion Books for Children and Teens from the Children's Book Cooperative
Podcasts
These podcasts explore the topics discussed throughout Just Mercy.
Series
- SerialSeason three of Serial explores the many facets of the justice system in Cleveland, OH, often discussing how race and class play a large role in how we are treated by the system.
- Headlong: Running from CopsWhat can we learn about the justice system from the TV show Cops? A lot, apparently.
- Ear HustleLearn about life inside and outside of San Quentin Prison. Hosted and produced by current and former inmates, the men share their stories of life in prison, attempts at redemption, and re-entry into society.
- CaughtStories of children in the criminal justice system
- DecarceratedHosted by Ebony Magazine Power 100 honoree, Marlon Peterson, Decarcerated highlights the journeys of success of people who has spent time in prison. In America there are over 68 million people with a criminal conviction. Decarcerated will tell you their stories of success.
- Decarceration NationThe Decarceration Nation Podcast, a podcast about radically re-imagining America’s criminal justice system, was created by Joshua B. Hoe to help bring attention to the need for criminal justice reform. Conceptually, the podcast is an attempt to combine first-hand experience with research to educate to inspire change and communicate the broad scope of the changes that need to happen. Josh has a background in public speaking, debate, and public policy research and he holds a Masters Degree in International Relations. He is a former National College Debate Champion (1990).
- Criminal (In)JusticeSometimes challenging, often disturbing, occasionally absurd, always timely: Criminal Injustice explores the most complex and urgent issues facing the U.S. criminal justice system in conversation with the field's most knowledgeable experts. Professor David Harris and guests take on everything from racial bias to use of force... from surveillance technology to mass incarceration... and from police abuse and misconduct to the astonishing, frequently hilarious misdeeds of "Lawyers Behaving Badly."
- Justice In AmericaJustice in America, hosted by Josie Duffy Rice and Clint Smith, is a podcast for everyone interested in criminal justice reform— from those new to the system to experts who want to know more. Each episode we cover a new criminal justice issue. We explain how it works and look at its impact on people, particularly poor people and people of color. We’ll also interview activists, practitioners, experts, journalists, organizers, and others, to learn. By the end of the episode, you’ll walk away with a better understanding of what drives mass incarceration and what can fix it.
Episodes
- Planet Money: New Jersey Bails OutSome states are doing away with cash bail because the process can unfairly keep innocent people imprisoned while they wait for their court date if they can't afford to pay.
- Planet Money: Mugshots for SaleYou might not be guilty, but your mugshot could be online forever. Getting it taken down can be an expensive and complicated process.
- Educate: Rewriting the Sentence: Education Behind BarsWe hope that prison will reform people and help them become productive members of society upon release. Part of this reform might include opportunities for education. But tough-on-crime policies have made it harder to get an education behind bars.
Reply All: The Crime Machine, Parts I&II
These two episodes discuss the creation and deployment of the police crime tracking software Compstat, developed by detective Jack Maple, an NYPD officer. Though the software started with noble intentions, over time, it has been used as a productivity tool that some officers say has led to profiling and other unethical police behaviors. Jack Maple and his effect on policing are mentioned in the Central Park Five documentary.
Television and Film
These productions explore similar themes to Just Mercy and our speaker, Raymond Santana.
Netflix Programs
- 13thA documentary about the thirteenth amendment, which ended slavery in the United States. However, involuntary servitude is still permissible for those convicted of crimes. Writer/director/producer Ava DuVernay argues that through the criminalization of behavior and aggressive policing of black communities, black Americans still live in a system of slavery.
- When They See UsA television series documenting The Central Park Five, a group of teenagers wrongfully convicted of attacking and sexually assaulting a woman in Central Park in 1989. The teens were interrogated without lawyers and their convictions were based on confessions given during the interrogations. No physical or DNA evidence tied any of the suspects to the crime, but they were all sentenced and served stiff sentences. They were not exonerated until 2002, when another man admitted to the crime, whose DNA matched that from the victim.