Overview

A former public defender takes us behind the closed doors of America's criminal courts, revealing how the institutions that claim to protect us are doing the exact opposite-and offering a blueprint for finally fixing it. A former public defender takes us behind the closed doors of America's criminal courts, revealing how the institutions that claim to protect us are doing the exact opposite-and offering a blueprint for finally fixing it. ""A searing, compassionate, and utterly necessary book that pulls back the curtain with the clarity of a lawyer and the heart of someone who's seen the criminal legal system's devastating consequences up close.""-Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow As Americans, we are told a rose-tinted story about our criminal courts-that these are the hallowed halls of justice, that the purpose of our legal process is to find the truth, and that those who enforce the law are both equitable and heroic. But what if the reality is purposefully obscured to hide something rotten at the system's core? In The Price of Mercy, attorney and former public defender Emily Galvin Almanza weaves hard data and unforgettable stories, dark humor and compelling evidence to tell us the truth about what's really going on behind the closed doors of America's criminal courts. She shows us how jails actually increase future crime, the dirty tricks police use to make millions in overtime pay, how a man could spend decades in prison because scientists mistook dog hair for his own, the perverse incentives that push prosecutors to seek convictions even when they themselves don't want to, and how judges may decide cases differently after lunch. We'll learn what's working, too- how public defenders can improve public health and even economic mobility, and how planting more trees can reduce a neighborhood's murder rates. But a lone defender winning a case won't change the system. Galvin Almanza argues that we need an engaged public to confront the stark reality of our crime-generating, poverty-entrenching, health-destroying legal apparatus and rebuild it into something that can save our collective present and prevent our future from being torn apart. Provocative and eye-opening, The Price of Mercy lifts the curtain on the way our laws really operate and presents a path forward for true transformation of the American criminal court system. Justice, and the law itself, is not some static thing. It is something enacted together, decision by decision, in acts of inhumanity or mercy.

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9780593799116

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Reviews

“The Price of Mercy is an astonishing and moving achievement. Flying way below the dark clouds of political rhetoric about crime-and-punishment and law-and-order in America, Emily Galvin Almanza brings us instead into the police precinct interrogation room, the holding cell in the courthouse, the jury voir dire selection process, the judge’s chambers and the packed courtroom with dozens of cases, the sequestered jury deliberation room, the filthy and forlorn prison cell and the sorrows of family visitation day. Unflinching, refreshingly pragmatic and bracingly humane, Emily Galvin Almanza commits us to a street-level systemic understanding of what’s actually working and what’s failing in American criminal justice. Her account of our penal condition, infused with personal stories, surprising statistics and tangible reform ideas, can be a serious game-changer for America—if we’re listening. This book, required reading for defense lawyers and prosecutors, is an awesome labor of love for our country and all of the people who live here.”—Congressman Jamie Raskin (MD-8), Ranking Member, U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, author of #1 New York Times bestseller Unthinkable

Author Information

Emily Galvin Almanza is the co-founder and executive director of Partners for Justice, a nonprofit creating a new collaborative model of public defense designed to empower defenders nationwide. Prior to founding PFJ, Emily fought for clients inside the L.A. County Public Defender's Office, the Santa Clara County Public Defender's Office, and the Bronx Defenders, and with the Stanford Three Strikes Project. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Teen Vogue, and Time, among other publications.

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