Juries have been delivering independent verdicts in the interest of justice for over 800 years, serving as the final check on government's power to pass unjust, immoral, or oppressive laws that leave citizens at the mercy of sometimes jaded or corrupt courts and legislatures. This was what the Founding Fathers feared, and this is the reason why ......
The Case for a Defender General of the United States
In these times of reckoning--at last--with America's original sin of slavery and racist policies, with police misconduct, and with mass-incarceration, many in our country ask, "What can we do?" In this powerful and insightful book, Andrea D. Lyon explicates what is wrong with the criminal justice system through clients' stories and historical ......
Crime and Politics in the Personal Noir of James Ellroy
James Ellroy has mined the darkest corners of the American experience, public and private, to paint a landscape of corrupt hearts, minds, and institutions. Ellroy is particularly notable for exploring the connection between the murder of his own mother, when he was ten years old, and his troubled adolescence and early adulthood struggles with ......
Improving Criminal Justice Outcomes by Transforming Decision-Making
The Crisis in America's Criminal Courts highlights a variety of problems that judges, prosecutors, and public defenders face within a criminal justice system that is ineffective, unfair, and extraordinarily expensive. While many argue, and I agree, that crushing caseloads and court dockets certainly qualify as a crisis, I suggest there is a much ......
At 5:45 p.m. on September 9, 1919, nearly every patrolman on the Boston Police Department abandoned their posts, leaving the city victim to four days of crime, looting and mob violence. This is the story of what led to the strike and the political ramifications of the greatest tragedy in American policing.
nited StatesLessons Learned from Islamic Criminal Justice Systems
This book ignites debates about the history and persistence of judicial corporal punishment in criminal justice systems and examines if corporal punishment is a less cruel alternative to spending years behind bars in primitive and punitive jails and prisons.
Sisyphus No More presents compelling psychological, sociological, ethical, and financial grounds for providing more and better education and training to our incarcerated population. The arguments show that education and training programs humanize prisoners, support their reintegration into society and securing a living-wage job.
In the more than 30 years since the drug court model transformed the criminal justice landscape, problem-solving courts have expanded their reach beyond criminogenic needs. They now address demographic similarities (e.g., veterans courts, tribal wellness courts, community courts) and offense characteristics (e.g., prostitution courts, sex offender ......
Proposes groundbreaking, fundamental reform for the adversarial legal system to keep innocent people from going to prison We rely on the adversarial legal system to hold offenders accountable, ensure everyone is playing by the same rules, and keep our streets safe. Unfortunately, a grave condition lingers under the surface: at all times the ......
