This book reveals how unjust practices still occur in courts of the United States. It is an important read for all Americans as well as people around the world who are looking for ways on how to diagnose fairness in their respective countries.

Very difficult but enlightening, important read. Learning about the cruelties of our world, we cannot turn a blind eye to. How can we fix this? How do we solve this? I don’t know. But perhaps with books like these we can start to figure it out.

Eye-opening and important read about our criminal justice system. Alec Karakatsanis does a great job of using personal experience and expertise as a civil rights attorney and former public defender to illustrate the issues with the system. Regardless of your level of knowledge of the criminal justice system, you will gain some insight from this book.

A book you will be happy you have read.
Alec Karakatsanis is a civil rights lawyer and former public defender. This book is a product of his dedication to exposing and eradicating constitutional violations, human rights abuses and systematic brutalization of people (particularly the poor and people of color) that go on in the American legal system. I am not sure how endangered of a character such a passionate lawyer is, but the value of his work is evident from the brief mentions of some cases he has brought.

“Usual Cruelty” is a short read composed of three separate essays Karakatsanis wrote at different points in his professional life. He is upfront about that, which is refreshing. The essays focus on different aspects of the American legal system and law enforcement, highlighting the normalization of inhumane practices in prison and in the courtroom, complicity of the legal profession and the society as a whole in the perpetuation of such abuses, inadequacy of existing laws and cavalier attitudes towards upholding constitutional rights of defendants etc.

Karakatsanis unflinchingly lists the horrible conditions prisoners face, the duplicitous legal process the accused are forced to go through, and the hypocritical attitudes towards the current state of affairs displayed even by those in the profession who are hailed as “progressive”. He makes sharp, morally, and factually consistent arguments. Among the crucial points he underlines is the idea that law enforcement standards (what constitutes a crime and what crimes committed by whom and where are worth prosecuting) are a choice, that the system as currently set up makes it easy for us and direct participants to lose our ability to see other as human, that it does not accomplish its stated goals (that shoddily conceal the actual objectives) and really, many know it and are fine with it. The subtitle of the book is “the complicity of lawyers in the criminal justice system”, but really it is about everyone's complicity, because our silent acceptance allows the defective system currently in place to persist.

Fortunately, Karakatsanis point at some necessary remedies throughout the book: advocating for “prison reform” that reduces the amount of resources available to law enforcement, rather than increases them, eliminating the conflict of interest many law enforcement and judicial agencies that depend on bail and fine money for income face, keeping in mind the humanity of accused or convicted individuals at all times, and, most importantly, reconsidering what purpose we as a society want our legal apparatus to serve, and holding our judges, prosecutors and leaders to that standard.

This is a good book on an important topic, and I hope Karakatsanis and like-minded lawyers put out more such work, reaching more people and advancing these topic in public discussion.
Karakatsanis unflinchingly lists the horrible conditions prisoners face, the duplicitous legal process the accused are forced to go through, and the hypocritical attitudes towards the current state of affairs displayed even by those in the profession who are hailed as “progressive”. He makes sharp, morally, and factually consistent arguments. Among the crucial points he underlines is the idea that law enforcement standards (what constitutes a crime and what crimes committed by whom and where are worth prosecuting) are a choice, that the system as currently set up makes it easy for us and direct participants to lose our ability to see other as human, that it does not accomplish its stated goals (that shoddily conceal the actual objectives) and really, many know it and are fine with it. The subtitle of the book is “the complicity of lawyers in the criminal justice system”, but really it is about everyone's complicity, because our silent acceptance allows the defective system currently in place to persist.

Fortunately, Karakatsanis point at some necessary small remedies throughout the book: advocating for “prison reform” that reduces the amount of resources available to law enforcement, rather than increases them, eliminating the conflict of interest many law enforcement and judicial agencies that depend on bail and fine money for income face, keeping in mind the humanity of accused or convicted individuals at all times, and, most importantly, reconsidering what purpose we as a society want our legal apparatus to serve, and holding our judges, prosecutors and leaders to that standard.

This is a good book on an important topic, and I hope Karakatsanis and like-minded lawyers put out more such work, reaching more people and advancing these topic in public discussion.

I can't even begin to underscore how powerful and important this is. Usual Cruelty should be required reading for all Americans. The subtitle for this book is "The Complicity of Lawyers in the Criminal Justice System," but it covers so much more than that. It is a call for us to step back and fundamentally rethink why our punishment and criminal "justice" system works the way it does - eventually coming to the realization that it does not work. This is one of the most eye-opening books I've read in a long time, one that should deeply change the way you think about criminality, prisons, and criminal justice reform. Please pick up this book for yourself and your friends and thank me later. P.S. All of the proceeds go to the Essie Justice Group, a woman-led prison abolition group!