America’s criminal legal system is perhaps as large as it is complex. Having evolved from English common law, today the U.S. has thousands of federal, state and local systems — we also incarcerate more people per capita than any other nation.
It is also deeply unequal. Some of the earliest “police forces” in the country were slave patrols, and some of our nation’s racist past arguably still reflects today’s justice system, as approximately 1 in 9 Black children and 1 in 28 Latino children have an incarcerated parent, compared with roughly 1 in 57 white children, according to the Center for American Progress.
A new book aims to analyze and document injustices in criminal courts, and also looks to correct them.
From racial discrimination in jury selection to the argument that “many courts act as centers of profit,” we sit down with the co-authors to discuss "The Fear of Too Much Justice: Race, Poverty and the Persistence of Inequality in the Criminal Courts."
GUESTS
Stephen Bright, lecturer at Yale and Georgetown universities and co-author of "The Fear of Too Much Justice"
James Kwak, vice chair of the Southern Center for Human Rights and co-author of "The Fear of Too Much Justice"