Media
Every D.A. in America Should Open a Sentence Review Unit
The New York Times, Aug. 01, 2019 - Shrinking our prison population isn’t just about looking forward. With many parole systems decimated, D.A.s across the nation need to revisit extraordinarily long sentences that do nothing for hundreds of thousands of people in America’s expensive and overcrowded prisons. Co-authored with Sarah Lustbader.
01 August, 2019
Studying Criminal Justice from the Inside Out
Yale Law Report, Jun. 27, 2019 - This article describes the class I teach on the criminal legal system inside a CT prison. The course, which has 10 “inside” students from a Connecticut prison and 10 “outside” students from Yale Law School, is now a regular offering at Yale.
27 June, 2019
The Democratic Candidates Should Tell Us Now Who They’ll Put on the Supreme Court
The New York Times, Mar. 10, 2019 - Democratic candidates who wish to be taken seriously as criminal justice reformers should give us a list of Supreme Court nominees—not the usual short-list of sitting judges and federal prosecutors, but a list of true, visionary reformers like Bryan Stevenson, Michelle Alexander, or Sherrilyn Ifill.
10 March, 2019
D.C. Doubles Down on Destructive Prison-First Policies
The Washington Post, Feb. 14, 2019 - D.C.’s elected leaders recently embraced the federal prosecutor’s plan to funnel all “felon-in-possession” gun charges into federal court, undermining a hard-fought effort to give second chances to young adults convicted of crimes in D.C.
14 February, 2019
Making Sense of the Violence in Charlottesville
The Atlantic, Sep. 03, 2017 - Large swaths of the American public repudiated the White nationalist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, as “un-American.” Still, throughout American history, attempts to justify racial terror have been accompanied by others’ commitment to erasing it from our memory. America remains far behind other countries when it comes to facing up to its history of racially motivated violence. Co-authored with Elizabeth Klein.
03 September, 2017
How Black Leaders Unwittingly Contributed to The Era Of Mass Incarceration
NPR, Jul. 17, 2017 - An interview about Locking Up Our Own.
17 July, 2017
When Black America Was Pro-Police
The Atlantic, June 2017 - Georgetown Law Professor Paul Butler reviews Locking Up Our Own in The Atlantic.
07 June, 2017
‘Demolish that lie’: James Forman Jr takes on Black Lives Matter backlash
The Guardian, Apr. 29, 2017 - An interview detailing how Locking Up Our Own demolishes the lie—frequently invoked by conservative commentators—that black people only care about crime when it’s committed by the police.
29 April, 2017
Black-on-Black Crime, Black-on-Black Punishment in America
The Independent, Apr. 29, 2017 - A book review of Locking Up Our Own.
29 April, 2017
The Age of Mass Incarceration May Actually be Abating
The Washington Post, Apr. 19, 2017 - A book review of Locking Up Our Own.
09 April, 2017
Justice Springs Eternal
New York Times, Mar. 25, 2017 - Despite Jeff Sessions’ and Donald Trump’s ill-informed tough-on-crime agenda, the movement for a more merciful justice system remains strong. If that movement stays local and learns from both past defeats and recent victories, the current momentum of reform efforts will outlast them.
25 March, 2017
