Whitney Benns, a friend of the Systemic Justice Project and Justice Fellow has a fantastic piece in The Atlantic on forced labor in the Louisiana State Penitentiary. After describing scenes that are virtually unchanged from antebellum slavery, including especially the race
Criminal Justice
The Systemic Justice Project is co-sponsoring a series of presentations and discussions over the next two weeks at Harvard Law School on “lawyering for social justice.” The first event is tomorrow. Movement Lawyering and Supporting #BlackLivesMatter Wednesday, September 16, 12:00
Systemic Justice Project Advisory Board Member Alec Karakatsanis shared with us news of the today’s federal district court decision by Judge Myron Thompson (Middle District of Alabama) declaring the use of secured bail to be unconstitutional when used without an
From the Frontier Torts Project: Solitary Confined: The Case for a Frontier Tort Executive Summary A prisoner living in long-term solitary confinement in the United States typically spends twenty-three hours alone each day in a six-foot by nine-foot cell. Everything
An important op-ed by Systemic Justice Project Board of Advisors member Alec Karakatsanis on the way that political fear is preventing illegally sentenced prisoners from being released. There are many people like Mr. Gilbert in America’s federal prisons — people
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_dHa5iZPCg] February 13, 2015 – at Harvard Law School – Students for Inclusion Event (“Law School Matters: Reassessing Legal Education Post-Ferguson” Conference). The title of this event, featuring keynote presentations by Professors Peller and Crenshaw, was “Law School or Justice
Ted Hamilton (HLS 3L) published a Boston Globe article this week on “objective reasonableness.” Here’s the introduction: The video is no less horrifying for being familiar: a young black man surrounded by about 20 police officers, nearly all of them
From Climate Law Blog, disturbing news about a “recently passed Wyoming law now criminalizes certain kinds of data collection: specifically, unauthorized collection of natural resource data.” Here’s an excerpt: The new Wyoming Senate Enrolled Act No. 61 outlaws the
A great piece in Slate on the heroic efforts of Systemic Justice Project Board of Advisor member Alec Karakatsanis to tackle incarceration of people unable to pay money bail: For Karakatsanis, co-founder of the nonprofit civil rights organization Equal Justice Under Law,
From Harvard Law Today: Mandating that police wear body-worn cameras can help to improve relations between police and communities, and ensure greater accountability for police actions. But these requirements must be carefully and thoughtfully implemented within a much wider set