These days, political candidates of all stripes say they support “criminal justice reform,” but what does that really mean?
Alec Karakatsanis, a public defender turned civil rights lawyer, argues that the majority of officials calling for change have done little more than curb the most grotesque abuses of what he calls the “punishment bureaucracy.” In a new book of essays, Usual Cruelty, Karakatsanis critiques the blindness of his own profession, arguing that lawyers inside the criminal justice system—now desensitized to its everyday brutality—have largely helped preserve an architecture of injustice and cruelty.
Karakatsanis’ organization, Civil Rights Corps, has filed lawsuits challenging unjust treatment of defendants across the country, including in Harris County’s landmark bail case. He’s skeptical of the notion that progressive or reform-minded prosecutors can generate systemic change. Still, Usual Cruelty provides a new framework for evaluating whether politicians are pushing tweaks or true transformation: Will they stop prosecuting drug possession, refuse to prosecute children like they’re adults, or commit to shrinking the size of their own office?
