Public Justice

A former public defender takes us behind the closed doors of America's criminal courts, revealing how the institutions that claim to protect us are doing the exact opposite—and offering a blueprint for finally fixing it. “A searing, compassionate, and utterly necessary book that pulls back...

"A sheriff-elect was murdered. I was next on the hit list." —J.Tom Morgan In December 2000, Derwin Brown, the newly elected sheriff of DeKalb County, Georgia, was ambushed and murdered in his own driveway just days before taking office. He had run on reform—promising to clean up corruption...

Sometimes, it’s the good guys who are the criminals. Senate confirmation of a Presidential nomination; case fixing involving prosecutors and defense attorneys; a corrupt Congressman, and multiple murders. They don’t appear to be related, but facts can be deceiving. To save U.S. attorney Graham Brochette’s nomination to a position he covets, attorney Lucius White must save his son from charges of cocaine dealing and suspicion of a murder committed with Brochette’s gun. Many powerful people want White to fail, and they are willing to kill to achieve their goals. White’s search for ...

A blueprint for criminal justice reform that lays the foundation for how model public defense programs should work to end mass incarceration. Combining wisdom drawn from over a dozen years as a public defender and cutting-edge research in the fields of organizational and cultural psychology...

He wanted the spotlight. She gave him exactly what he asked for. For eleven years, Lydia Rancher has been the perfect political wife, the invisible architect of her husband’s flawless public image. She manages the campaigns, she stages the magazine shoots, and she smiles on cue. But when a careless mistake leaves Drew’s tablet unlocked, Lydia discovers his fourteen-month affair—documented in excruciating detail by his ambitious young mistress. Lydia isn’t the kind of woman who screams or throws plates. She’s the kind of woman who plans. With the city's "Man of the Year" gala only ...

Will Johnnie Veal—convicted of the murder of two police officers in 1970—be granted parole after 50 years in prison? How can he convince the parole board he’s reformed when he insists he’s innocent? What is prison time even supposed to accomplish? These are the questions that propel The Parole Room forward as it builds toward Johnnie’s 20th parole hearing—after 19 rejections.

Fresh off her single-handed defense against alien adversaries in a galactic courtroom, Maxine Justice discovers that saving the Earth is not enough to earn a hero’s welcome back home. Once again broke and now looking for revenge, her return to night court as a public defender takes an immediate detour when she’s tasked with defending a Therapod murder suspect.

He told me to smile while he turned my grief into his greatest political asset. I gave the world the truth. For twelve years, Erika Walker has stood beside Congressman Stephen Walker, lending dignity to the family tragedy that launched his career. Then, at a glittering gala held in her brother Caleb’s name, she discovers Stephen is sleeping with glamorous television journalist Monica Smith, and Monica is only one of several women. But the affairs are only the beginning of Stephen’s deceit. With help from Alexander Ashton, the powerful British billionaire Stephen once tried and failed to...

A later-in-life marriage crisis. A husband’s hidden phone. And one secret text that proves another woman has already taken her seat. Nadine Keller built Mabel's Table from her grandmother's recipes, her own sweat, and twenty years of marriage to a man everyone else called charming. Then, during their anniversary dinner, she sees Troy reading a hidden text under the table. From Becca Marin. The event designer he swore was only a vendor. Nadine does not scream. She does not throw wine. She smiles for the room, saves the receipt, and starts looking. What she finds is worse than a cheating ...

CONSERVATISM: AMERICA’S PERSONALITY DISORDER Conservatives often defend policies that feel hard-hearted. Why? Christopher Armitage and D. Carl Brown argue the root problem is a measurable empathy gap, not mere ideology. Their concise analysis shows how this gap drives positions on poverty, immigration, pollution, reproductive rights, and LGBTQ+ equality, hurting millions while claiming virtue. Grounded in psychology and real-world data, this book reframes the culture war and offers a path toward compassion-led politics. Christopher Armitage is an Air Force veteran and researcher in ...

“Can we survive this?” worried friends ask Lamar Alexander. A US senator who started in JFK’s Justice Department, worked in the Nixon White House, turned down serving as GOP Watergate counsel and as Ford’s campaign manager, walked for six months across Tennessee to become governor, lost...

A comprehensive exploration of how police forces have become militarized—both in equipment and mindset—and what that means for American democracy. “Fascinating and at times wrenching.” ―The New Yorker The last days of colonialism taught America’s revolutionaries that soldiers in the...

Fusing science and social justice, renowned public health researcher Dr. Arline T. Geronimus offers an urgent book exploring the ways in which systemic injustice erodes the health of marginalized people. "Monumental." —Ibram X. Kendi, author of Stamped from the Beginning America has woken up...

An important account of everyday heroes fighting on the front lines of the overdose crisis, from the New York Times bestselling author of Dopesick and Factory Man. “Deeply reported, deeply moving” —Patrick Radden Keefe Nearly a decade into the second wave of America's overdose crisis...

Do you like true crime stories? Public Enemies – True Crime Gangster Stories from the Roaring Twenties From the era of gangsters, molls and prohibition, almost (but not quite), lost in the mists of time, these tales romp along with plenty of action and recreate the atmosphere of this exciting and dangerous era using the vernacular of the times. You’ll have heard of most of these notorious criminals, but possibly not so much about one or two of them. All of them were real, ruthless hoodlums, and all had their "15 minutes of fame", leaving trails of death and mayhem behind them. Most did ...

An urgent argument that child sexual abuse is preventable, not inevitable—and that we are the first generation with the tools to stop it. One in five children will experience sexual abuse before their eighteenth birthday. It happens in every country, every state, every city, every neighborhood...

He thought she’d fade gracefully into the background. Instead, she lit up the interstate. Denise Harper was the perfect wife for nearly three decades—smart, dependable, elegant, and always willing to make her husband Kevin look good. That was her first mistake. Her second was believing loyalty would be returned. After Kevin’s affair with a much younger influencer blows apart their marriage, Denise watches him try to spin the narrative, protect his reputation, and glide into his new life without consequences. Everyone expects her to be heartbroken. Quiet. Bitter, maybe. But forgettable...

"Copaganda" is a special kind of propaganda employed by police, prosecutors, and news media. It stokes fear of police-recorded crime and distorts society’s responses to it. As the United States incarcerates five times more people per capita than it did in 1970—despite record low crime rates—a sprawling and profitable punishment bureaucracy spends a lot of time and money to manipulate what we think that bureaucracy does and why.

America has made mental illness a crime. Jails in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago each house more people with mental illnesses than any hospital. In this revelatory book, journalist Alisa Roth goes deep inside the criminal justice system to tell how and why it has become a warehouse where inmates are denied proper treatment, abused, and punished in ways that make them sicker. Through intimate stories of people in the system and those trying to fix it, Roth reveals the hidden forces behind this crisis and suggests how a fairer and more humane approach might look.

My husband served me divorce papers at dinner. I arrive at a luxury restaurant expecting Charles to toast my promotion. Instead, a process server hands me divorce papers, his mistress takes my chair, and Charles leaves me with the bill. Charles called the settlement generous. I called it Exhibit A. Now the woman he wanted to replace me with can watch her stolen life become evidence, his public victory lap can turn into a public reckoning, and Charles can learn what happens when the wife he tried to erase is smart enough to keep proof. ✔ Cheating husband revenge ✔ Divorce papers served ...