CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN DIVIDED AMERICA

A searching examination of the criminal justice system in America, each of whose components is found wanting.

“American criminal justice is in crisis. It ­doesn’t do nearly enough to prevent crime, and it doesn’t deliver nearly enough justice.” So writes Stanford law professor and former U.S. attorney Sklansky. The four major elements of the justice system, from policing to punishment with prosecution and adjudication in between, are all hopelessly broken, the author argues. Policing focuses, oppressively, on poor people of color, most of whom would welcome equitable treatment, since “crime has devastating, disproportionate impacts on poor people and ­people of color, especially Black Americans.” Sklansky is not an advocate of defunding the police, but he does see numerous ways in which meaningful reforms can be carried out. Reforms in the other three areas of justice are also wanted. As Sklansky writes, prosecutors wield too much power overall, and much legal defense falls either on overworked and underpaid civil servants or on attorneys in private practice who effectively subcontract to governments of various levels. One way of reining in prosecutorial power, Sklansky writes in a provocative turn, is to put more responsibility on juries’ shoulders by explaining to them the possible outcomes of their decisions and having those juries do the sentencing: “Telling them forthrightly about the practical stakes of their verdict, whether or not they can weigh in on the sentence, will encourage them to take collective responsibility—as adjudicators and later, after the trial, as citizens.” To make this happen effectively, Sklansky adds, juries must be fair—which means they must be representative of the population, which means they must be far more diverse. Finally, reforms in sentencing toward restorative justice and away from creating a permanent underclass of criminals and ex-cons are badly needed.

A valuable platform for advocates of judicial, penal, and police reform.