genre: non-fiction
I would say this is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the gross inequities and systematic brokenness of the American justice system - or really, any American at all. Bryan Stevenson lays out specific issues he is passionate about through both factual information and anecdotal stories about people he has personally worked with within the system. Those issues are, most importantly, the plight of the wrongfully convicted (both on death row and those with life sentences) and the treatment of children and adolescents within the justice system. I would imagine that, like myself, every reader will be dismayed and appalled by what they learn goes on in our own country.
The author is an inspiring example of someone who sees a wrong and gives his soul to trying to solve it. It is so painful to read, you just want to believe that we - the judges, the police officers, the lawyers and sheriffs and jurors - are BETTER than that, but it's so clear that we're not. People with mental illness, criminals who are poor and have no access to good counsel, children from depraved circumstances who in their youth make decisions that determine their entire lifetimes in ways that are unfairly harsh towards black and brown children but even white children who are poor can get stuck in the same vicious cycle. My only complain is that we skip around between ideas a bit but even that doesn't detract from the power of the message.
Read it.
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