Mariya is an amazing person I’ve recently met on Twitter. She is passionate about corrections, social justice and criminal justice, and I found her personal story and trajectory to be a fascinating account that we can all learn from. Read her guest post, below, to gain an understanding of her passions and why working in…
Is it a crime to sleep outside? To beg for money on the streets? To store your personal belongings in public spaces? Is it a crime to be homeless? In some states, it is. An excellent publication, “Homes not Handcuffs,” by the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, reports that activities like sleeping, eating,…
A couple of Fridays a month, I like to feature non-profits and changemakers on my blog to raise awareness of the great work they do, provide a dose of inspiration, and show that positive change is possible. Catch up on my other Feature Friday posts here. This Friday, I would like to feature an incredible…
I’ve recently been reading more about “holistic advocacy,” and I think it’s an incredibly important theme for public defenders and others in the indigent defense community around the world to think about (not that I have much expertise on this topic…but here’s my two cents anyway!). Here’s an excellent quote from Robin Steinberg, Executive Director…
I just found an excellent and heartwrenching article about Haiti’s incarcerated minors, and more broadly the life-threatening prison conditions in Haitian prisons as well as the lack of legal infrastructure. As in so many other developing countries, innocent individuals are often wrongfully convicted and thrown in jail, only to languish in the face of inadequate…
Here are some excerpts from an incredible podcast/interview with Michelle Alexander on Political Affairs. Michelle Alexander is a professor at Ohio State’s Moritz College of Law, and previously held a position as the Director of Stanford Law School’s Civil Rights Clinic. She also worked as the Director of the Racial Justice Project of the ACLU…
This Friday, I’d like to feature the Equal Justice Initiative, an important non-profit headquartered in Montgomery, Alabama, and which works to reform the criminal justice system and defend those on death row. The organization’s about page states that EJI “provides legal representation to indigent defendants and prisoners who have been denied fair and just treatment…
A recent New York Times article describes the world of comfort – and perhaps even luxury – that war criminals are provided with at The Hague, Netherlands. I don’t have a gym, a personal trainer, or a spiritual room in my tiny bedroom. On my (soon to be) non-profit salary, I certainly won’t be able…
I recently finished “Indefensible: One Lawyer’s Journey into the Inferno of American Justice” by David Feige, who worked as a public defender in the Bronx for nearly fifteen years. It is a fascinating account of his work and the stories of the clients he represents. Perhaps my favorite quote from the entire book is the…
In a Legal Studies class I’m currently taking, I recently learned about an important problem relating to juvenile justice: the school-to-prison pipeline. While I was lucky enough to be living in an excellent school district, many other children in the U.S. simply don’t have that luxury. Today, the crisis of educational inequity in the U.S….