Justice Reform

What do you do when divine law and the justice demanded by your conscience clash? Muslims have wrestled with this problem since the earliest caliphates. The mazalim courts, dating back to the eighth century, were the answer: courts where any subject could appeal directly to an Islamic ruler...

James Comey, former FBI Director and New York Times bestselling author of A Higher Loyalty, uses his long career in federal law enforcement to explore issues of justice and fairness in the US justice system. James Comey might best be known as the FBI director that Donald Trump fired in 2017, but...

An eye-opening exploration of American policy reform, or lack thereof, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement and how the country can do better in the future from Fredrik deBoer, “one of the sharpest and funniest writers on the internet” (The New York...

An acclaimed legal scholar exposes the Supreme Court’s increasing use of unsigned, unexplained orders to change the law—all behind closed doors The Supreme Court has always had the authority to issue emergency rulings in exceptional circumstances. But since 2017, the Court has dramatically...

From Pulitzer Prize–winning author Gilbert King comes a chilling exploration of one of America’s most haunting wrongful conviction cases. Based on the hit podcast, Bone Valley dives into the dark heart of rural Florida, where a young man’s life was upended by a tragic miscarriage of...

Named a Best Book of 2021 by NPR This inspirational memoir serves as a call to action from prison reform activist Yusef Salaam, of the Exonerated Five, to turn our stories into tools for change in the pursuit of racial justice. They didn't know who they had. So begins Yusef Salaam telling his...

How states are making their legal systems more equitable, seen through the story of a Black man falsely imprisoned for thirty years for murder. In 1987, Ben Spencer, a twenty-two-year-old Black man from Dallas, was convicted of murdering white businessman Jeffrey Young—a crime he didn’t...

William Howard Taft was perhaps not a great president, although his limited view of the president’s role looks better today than it did at the time. But Taft’s true claim to greatness lies in his work before and after the White House: five decades of selfless public service culminating as...

This Book speaks from the point of view of criminal justice reform and there are significant references to the impact on post incarcerated individuals of the existing framework of Occupational Licensing and how reform will assist in job creation.The proposed reforms come from a standpoint of job creation and improving entrepreneurial opportunities within California and beyond. This book is fact based with significant documentation and research and is a personal plea for reform to not only California legislators but those across the nation.

In a world where artificial intelligence has replaced work, comfort has replaced purpose, and consequence has been erased, society begins to rot from the inside out. The Cities of Refuge presents a radical answer. Set in a near-future utopia where citizens live on universal basic income, the story follows Elias Thorne—a man who crosses a single line and is instantly cast out of comfort and into a brutal system of consequence. Stripped of entitlement and placed into a desert-based City of Refuge, he must face an unyielding law: if you do not work, you do not eat. This is not a prison. ...

An accessible guide for activists, educators, and all who are interested in understanding how the prison system oppresses communities and harms individuals. The United States incarcerates more of its residents than any other nation. Though home to 5% of the global population, the United States...

Unlock Your Second Chance with "Your Guide to a Fresh Start: Simplifying the Pardon Process" Are you ready to reclaim your rights and leave your past behind? This comprehensive guide, created by criminal justice reform pioneer Angela Stanton King, is your roadmap to navigating the often overwhelming pardon application process. Angela's personal journey of overcoming over 30 state and federal charges and receiving both a Presidential Federal Pardon and a Georgia State Pardon has inspired this step-by-step resource. Drawing from her own experience and expertise, she shares valuable insights ...

The explosive true story of America's most corrupt police unit, the Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF), which terrorized the city of Baltimore for half a decade. When Baltimore police sergeant Wayne Jenkins said he had a monster, he meant he had found a big-time drug dealer—one that he wanted to rob...

In Get Off My Neck, Debbie Hines draws on her unique perspective as a trial lawyer, former Baltimore prosecutor, and assistant attorney general for the State of Maryland to argue that US prosecutors, as the most powerful players in the criminal justice system, systematically target and criminalize Black people. Hines describes her disillusionment as a young Black woman who initially entered the profession with the goal of helping victims of crimes, only to discover herself aiding and abetting a system that prizes plea bargaining, speedy conviction, and excessive punishment above all else.

In "Justice for All" by Sage Ellison, the author tackles the pressing issue of bail reform and its crucial role in creating equitable justice solutions. Every day, many individuals remain incarcerated simply because they can't afford bail, contributing to systemic inequality and destabilizing communities. Ellison advocates for a transformative approach to justice in America that prioritizes fairness and support over punitive measures.

This book is the culmination of a lifetime of love and lessons that have shaped my personal journey from a young man in crisis to a champion for children. There were critical moments in my story where self-appointed “Hope Dealers” like my mother, Alice Lovelace, and my educator, Dr. Lorraine Wilson, intervened in my projected course to failure. The lessons I learned from them became the foundation of my own work with and for young people facing challenges that they often did not believe they can face alone: hopelessness, shame, disability, tragic home life, generally summed up as the ...

Despite reform efforts that have grown in scope and intensity over the last two decades, the machine of American mass incarceration continues to flourish. In this powerful polemic, formerly incarcerated activist, essayist, and organizer Emile Suotonye DeWeaver argues that the root of the problem is white supremacy.

Electronic monitoring. Locked-down drug treatment centers. House arrest. Mandated psychiatric treatment. Data-driven surveillance. Extended probation. These are some of the key alternatives held up as cost-effective substitutes for jails and prisons. But many of these so-called reforms actually widen the net, weaving in new strands of punishment and control, and bringing new populations, who would not otherwise have been subject to imprisonment, under physical control by the state.

Judge Cordell, the first African American woman to sit on the Superior Court of Northern California, knows firsthand how prejudice has permeated our legal system. And yet, she believes in the system. From ending school segregation to legalizing same-sex marriage, its progress relies on legal professionals and jurors who strive to make the imperfect system as fair as possible. Her Honor is an entertaining and provocative look into the hearts and minds of judges.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A renowned journalist and legal commentator exposes the unchecked power of the prosecutor as a driving force in America’s mass incarceration crisis—and charts a way out. “An important, thoughtful, and thorough examination of criminal justice in America that...