Usual Cruelty, Alec Karakatsanis
Usual Cruelty, Alec Karakatsanis
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Usual Cruelty
The Complicity of Lawyers in the Criminal Justice System

Author: Alec Karakatsanis

Narrator: George Newbern

Unabridged: 4 hr 26 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/31/2020


Synopsis

Alec Karakatsanis is interested in what we choose to punish. For example, it is a crime in most of America for poor people to wager in the streets over dice; dice-wagerers can be seized, searched, have their assets forfeited, and be locked in cages. It's perfectly fine, by contrast, for people to wager over international currencies, mortgages, or the global supply of wheat.

He is also troubled by how the legal system works when it is trying to punish people. The bail system, for example, is meant to ensure that people return for court dates. But it has morphed into a way to lock up poor people who have not been convicted of anything. He's so concerned about this that he has personally sued court systems across the country, resulting in literally tens of thousands of people being released from jail when their money bail was found to be unconstitutional.

Karakatsanis doesn't think people who have gone to law school, passed the bar, and sworn to uphold the Constitution should be complicit in the mass caging of human beings—an everyday brutality inflicted disproportionately on the bodies and minds of poor people and people of color. Usual Cruelty is a profoundly radical reconsideration of the American "injustice system" by someone who is actively, wildly successfully, challenging it.

About Alec Karakatsanis

A former public defender, Alec Karakatsanis is the founder of the Civil Rights Corps, an organization designed to advocate for racial justice and bring systemic civil rights cases on behalf of impoverished people. He was named the 2016 Trial Lawyer of the Year by Public Justice and was awarded the Stephen B. Bright Award for contributions to indigent defense in the South by Gideon's Promise. He lives in Washington, DC.


Reviews

Goodreads review by David on August 02, 2019

Alec Karakatsanis is an enormously passionate lawyer. Right out of school, he has been fighting for the poor and the abused, defending the constitution against all comers, be they judges, district attorneys or lawyers. His book, Usual Cruelty is a thoughtful and thorough examination of what is wrong......more

Goodreads review by Lauren on September 25, 2019

I can't even begin to underscore how powerful and important this is. Usual Cruelty should be required reading for all Americans. The subtitle for this book is "The Complicity of Lawyers in the Criminal Justice System," but it covers so much more than that. It is a call for us to step back and fundam......more

Goodreads review by Stephanie on March 23, 2021

a must read!!!!!......more

Goodreads review by Clif on March 02, 2021

Do you believe we have a true justice system in America that conforms to rules laid out in the Constitution and to Supreme Court rulings? If so, you could not be more wrong and this very short book should be on your reading list. There is good news from Illinois. It has become the first state to pass......more

Goodreads review by JK on January 07, 2022

I’ve followed Alec Karakatsanis (@equalityalec) for a while now on twitter. Alec is a good guy, which is not something I can say of any lawyer that I’ve met. And the more I learn about Alec the cooler I think he is. So, I must admit that I feel a little weird giving this book only an average/ 3-star......more