criminal justice
Pure justice is an idol
Atop the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, Lady Justice presides over a long history of injustices.
Is privilege real or imagined?
Sociologist Matthew Clair explores race and class at work in the criminal court system.
It’s time to end the cash bail system
You don’t get people to show up in court by threatening to take away money they never had.
Louisiana’s habitual offender law is cruel and unjust
Just because something is legal doesn’t make it morally right.
What mercy in the criminal justice system could look like
What if all were extended the gift of a second chance?
A first step toward treating offenders like humans
The new criminal justice law is modest. But it may signal a shifting narrative.
From the psych hospital to the jail
Two new books provide a devastating vision of America’s mental health crisis.
Colonial Americans suffered under a two-tiered justice system. Later they created one.
Since before the revolution, punishment has depended on who’s being punished.
The Night Of and the nights after
On HBO's new series, a young Muslim is accused of murder. But whether he's guilty isn't the point.
When mercy and justice meet
As we make laws and try to adjudicate justice, we often lose sight of the human faces affected.
Tennessee: poster child for a broken system
A justice system oriented mainly toward punishing offenders can have tragic consequences.
The science of injustice
The Enlightenment view of autonomous human subjects is built into the law, so the criminal justice system floats on myths and superstitions.
Black lives rising: Black Lives Matter symposium
Black people can eat at most lunch counters and travel across state lines without being consigned to the back of the bus. But the fundamental right to life continues to be haunted by white supremacy.
Criminal injustice: Michelle Alexander on racism and incarceration
"The U.S has created a vast legal system for racial and social control, unprecedented in world history. Yet we claim to be colorblind."
Scene of the crime: Television's longing for justice
Forensics television is more than gory titillation and casual senationalism. These programs scratch at religious itches: they try to see beyond death and long for ultimate justice.
Life without parole: The story of Liam Q.
Seventeen-year-old Liam Q. joined the U.S. Navy to see the world. His test scores marked him for further training in a technical specialty, but Liam wanted to steer an aircraft carrier, so the navy made him a helmsman. As every sailor knows, shore leave is the most dangerous part of any cruise, and this turned out to be true for Liam. He fell in love with an older woman and was convicted of shooting her husband. In 1983, at the age of 19, he embarked on a different kind of cruise: a life sentence “up the river.”