discrimination in criminal justice administration

"Just weeks after graduating from the Dean's List from Tennessee State University, Keeda Haynes became an inmate at Alderson Federal Prison Camp, all for a crime she didn't commit. This was never meant to be her story. Her childhood was spent in church, band practice, and Girl Scouts meetings, and when she enrolled at TSU, the path ahead had seemed bright. Then one day her boyfriend had asked for a simple favor, to sign to receive some FedEx packages-packages she did not know were filled with marijuana. Suddenly she found herself in court and sentenced to seven years in prison-the same sentence she'd would have been handed if she had dealt the drugs herself. The experience of this injustice led her to question the foundations of her faith, and to confront a criminal justice system filled with race and class inequities-but instead of succumbing to despair and becoming yet another victim of our failed national "War on Drugs," she decided to dedicate her life toward making our justice system truly just. Even after she was released, she knew there was still so much freedom left to fight for. Haynes attended law school at night and became a public defender. She went on to become a criminal justice reform advocate supporting formerly incarcerated women, and in 2020 she became a candidate hoping to become the first Black woman to represent Tennessee in Congress. When she fights against mandatory minimum sentencing laws, advocates for successful transitions for those who have served their time, and seeks alternative sentencing for parents to help keep families together, she draws from her own personal experiences with how our unequal justice system treats the most vulnerable. Through her unique perspective and passionate activism, she now tells her story to help us reshape our communities into a true second chance culture. What she's learned firsthand-slowly, painfully-is that our future does not have to be defined by our past. And she knows that we're all ready for the long fight towards justice"--.

"For decades, the American criminal justice system has followed a tough on crime model. That's starting to change, following increased criticism of prisons and policing. One model for reform has become especially prominent: restorative justice. Restorative justice prioritizes community-led reconciliation between victim and offender. Based on indigenous practices and motivated by inequities in our current system, restorative justice is premised on a radical redefinition of social harm. To understand this challenging topic, the articles in this book cover deep explorations of our current system, examples of restorative justice in practice, and an overview of the institutional barriers to change. Media literacy terms and questions are included, inviting readers to carefully consider how reporting of the topic has developed over time"--Amazon.com.

"Launching a propulsive middle grade nonfiction series, a young woman shares her harrowing experience of being wrongly accused of terrorism. Adama Bah grew up in East Harlem after immigrating from Conakry, Guinea, and was deeply connected to her community and the people who lived there. But as a thirteen-year-old after the events of September 11, 2001, she began experiencing discrimination and dehumanization as prejudice toward Muslim people grew. Then, on March 24, 2005, FBI agents arrested Adama and her father. Falsely accused of being a potential suicide bomber, Adama spent weeks in a detention center being questioned under suspicion of terrorism. With sharp and engaging writing, Adama recounts the events surrounding her arrest and its impact on her life--the harassment, humiliation, and persecution she faced for crimes she didn't commit. Accused brings forward a crucial and unparalleled first-person perspective of American culture post-9/11 and the country's discrimination against Muslim Americans, and heralds the start of a new series of compelling narrative nonfiction by young people, for young people"--Provided by the publisher.

"They didn't know who they had. So begins Yusef Salaam telling his story. No one's life is the sum of the worst things that happened to them, and during Yusef Salaam's seven years of wrongful incarceration as one of the Central Park Five, he grew from child to man, and gained a spiritual perspective on life. Yusef learned that we're all "born on purpose, with a purpose." Despite having confronted the racist heart of America while being "run over by the spiked wheels of injustice," Yusef channeled his energy and pain into something positive, not just for himself but for other marginalized people and communities. Better Not Bitter is the first time that one of the now Exonerated Five is telling his individual story, in his own words. Yusef writes his narrative: growing up Black in central Harlem in the '80s, being raised by a strong, fierce mother and grandmother, his years of incarceration, his reentry, and exoneration. Yusef connects these stories to lessons and principles he learned that gave him the power to survive through the worst of life's experiences. He inspires readers to accept their own path, to understand their own sense of purpose. With his intimate personal insights, Yusef unpacks the systems built and designed for profit and the oppression of Black and Brown people. He inspires readers to channel their fury into action, and through the spiritual, to turn that anger and trauma into a constructive force that lives alongside accountability and mobilizes change. This memoir is an inspiring story that grew out of one of the gravest miscarriages of justice, one that not only speaks to a moment in time or the rage-filled present, but reflects a 400-year history of a nation's inability to be held accountable for its sins. Yusef Salaam's message is vital for our times, a motivating resource for enacting change. Better, Not Bitter has the power to soothe, inspire and transform. It is a galvanizing call to action"--.

From award-winning, bestselling author Ibi Zoboi and prison reform activist Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five comes a powerful YA novel in verse about a boy who is wrongfully incarcerated. The story that I thought was my life didn't start on the day I was born. Amal Shahid has always been an artist and a poet. But even in a diverse art school, he's seen as disruptive and unmotivated by a biased system. Then one fateful night, an altercation in a gentrifying neighborhood escalates into tragedy. "Boys just being boys" turns out to be true only when those boys are white. The story that I think will be my life starts today. Suddenly, at just sixteen years old, Amal's bright future is upended: he is convicted of a crime he didn't commit and sent to prison. Despair and rage almost sink him until he turns to the refuge of his words, his art. This never should have been his story. But can he change it' With spellbinding lyricism, award-winning author Ibi Zoboi and prison reform activist Yusef Salaam tell a moving and deeply profound story about how one boy is able to maintain his humanity and fight for the truth, in a system designed to strip him of both.

". . . exposes the contradictions at the heart of American life - between patriotism and justice, between freedom and inequality, incarceration, police violence. In a series of essays, [the author] holds us to account individually and as a nation . .. examines shortcomings, grapples with the anxiety of feeling stuck, and looks in new directions for the tools to build a just America . . . questions whether Martin Luther King, Jr. can ever really be the hero we need in our time, untangles the persistent cultural power of Bill Cosby, and weighs the value of police and prison abolition"--Provided by publisher.

Examines the case involving the rape of a Florida woman in 1957 and the fallout that followed her report that it was an African American man who attacked her. Highlights the tensions of the era along with a shocking conspiracy that hindered true justice in the case.

"An original and consequential argument about race, crime, and the law today, Americans are debating our criminal justice system with new urgency. Mass incarceration and aggressive police tactics--and their impact on people of color--are feeding outrage and a consensus that something must be done. But what if we only know half the story? In Locking Up Our Own, the Yale legal scholar and former public defender James Forman Jr. weighs the tragic role that some African Americans themselves played in escalating the war on crime. As Forman shows, the first substantial cohort of black mayors, judges, and police chiefs took office around the country amid a surge in crime. Many came to believe that tough measures--such as stringent drug and gun laws and "pretext traffic stops" in poor African American neighborhoods--were needed to secure a stable future for black communities. Some politicians and activists saw criminals as a "cancer" that had to be cut away from the rest of black America. Others supported harsh measures more reluctantly, believing they had no other choice in the face of a public safety emergency. Drawing on his experience as a public defender and focusing on Washington, D.C., Forman writes with compassion for individuals trapped in terrible dilemmas--from the young men and women he defended to officials struggling to cope with an impossible situation. The result is an original view of our justice system as well as a moving portrait of the human beings caught in its coils."--.

Racial profiling isn't just a problem for one group of people. It's a problem for everyone in America, and the world. The underlying racism that contributes to profiling is a serious issue for people of all colors. This insightful book presents facts and statistics to counter damaging myths, giving readers perspective to understand how racial profiling can happen and what to do about it. Readers will learn how to push back against discrimination, what to do if they ever feel they are a victim of racial profiling, and how to handle the emotional toll that racism causes.

"[The author] . . . reflects on the landmark cases he has battled--including representing Trayvon Martin's family--and offers a disturbing look at how the justice system is devised for certain people to lose and others to win, and exposes how it is legal to harm--with the intent to destroy--people of color"--OCLC.