14. Summer Reading — 2017

Vonzella
Vonzella
Jul 10, 2017 · 5 min read

I’m always going back to school in some way, and my time at Vonzella has been no different. In addressing our ongoing bail crisis, I’ve been trying to make some sense of our criminal justice system more generally. In addition to gluing myself to courtroom benches, consulting legal scholars and other advisors, and meeting with those most affected by the system, a big source of clarity, information, and standpoint has come from reading.

It’s no Bill Gates, or Hillary, or Oprah, but here’s a list of 8 books to read this summer. There’s a little something for everyone — especially those interested in criminal justice. Stay woke. (And a special shoutout to The Marshall Project for its daily inspiration.)

1Shakespeare Saved My Life by Laura Bates. This is the book on the list most likely to make you cry. I’m grateful to have read this book (and for my mom for gifting it to me) and for Laura Bates for giving everyone an opportunity to see positives in prisoners. A special thanks to Mr. Larry Newton for being an incredible human being and demonstrating why we need to keep challenging sentencing laws in this country — and read more Shakespeare! (If you are reading this, Mr. Newton, I hope I’ve answered some of your questions posed on page 287 of the book.)

2 Evicted by Matthew Desmond. This is the book I talk about most. I couldn’t put it down, despite how upsetting it can be reading the struggles everyday Americans face in trying to keep a roof over their heads. Matthew Desmond’s masterpiece can teach us all a lot about some of the horrible yet commonplace events that happen in our communities. Did you know, about one in five black women renters report being evicted at some point in their lives? Evicted portrays many of the problems we see in our bail crisis and it’s stunning. Give this and the book a read and see if you agree.

3 Locking Up Our Own by James Forman Jr. I recently described this book as a “game changer” to a close friend and confidant. For so long I couldn’t understand how a courtroom of judges, clerks, and officers processed and locked up their own in the 36th District Court in Detroit like it was nothing. Now I get it, thanks to James Forman Jr. and his book on how unsuspecting people have contributed (and continue to contribute) to mass incarceration in this country. Check out this point he makes in the book (my margin notes say “so true!”): “And yet, I said, our system never treated the failure of prison as a reason not to try more prison.”

4 Stamped From The Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi I recently had the pleasure of seeing Ibram X. Kendi at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, where he spoke through his book about “defying the racist order of the day”. Stamped From The Beginning is serious, artful, and full of shaking-my-head information — as the title says, it is the “definitive history of racist ideas in America”. I’m still thinking about a statement in the book from Angela Davis — made in 1990(!): “African Americans are suffering the most oppression since slavery.” Where are we in 2017? Where are we going to be in 2027?

5 Liberating Minds by Ellen Condliffe Lagemann Would you rather your neighbor — let’s say one of the 641,100 people who had been sentenced to state/federal prison and re-entered their communities in 2015 — have a college degree or not? Yes or no? (I know some people are probably like ‘Is that even a question?’) In making a compelling “case for college in prison”, Ellen Condliffe Lagemann focuses on research proving that dollars spent on education return more than twice their value to the public in reduced prison costs. Liberating Minds is also about healing, improving society, and ultimately strengthening our democracy. It’s very persuasive, and it feels like the forefront of a movement for education funding instead of prisons.

6 Ghettoside by Jill Leovy Crime investigators, Angelenos, and those troubled by homicide gun violence in this country might be interested in this timely book. Written by a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, Jill Leovy traces the work of Detective John Skaggs and details primary accounts of murder mysteries. What is most awakening about this book is its exploration of the “very simple” yet thought-provoking idea that “where the criminal justice system fails to respond vigorously to violent injury and death, homicide becomes endemic.” As a native of Los Angeles I was fascinated by Ghettoside’s investigation of life “south of the Ten”, but this book is ultimately about the breakdown of why murder happens in communities all around us and across the country.

7 Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson “Going into any prison is deeply confusing if you know anything about the racial demographics of America.” Written by a true living hero, Just Mercy movingly spells out the “the presumption of guilt assigned to the poor and people of color” in the United States. As someone who’s had the privilege of receiving firsthand advice from Bryan Stevenson and EJI (while working on a death penalty case in Alabama in 2013), take account of this book and its wisdom — we all can learn how we can do better for each other, even in the face of extreme efforts…like those taken by some, to keep innocent people behind bars and on death row.

8 This Fight Is Our Fight by Elizabeth Warren This is a good one to close. Politics aside, Little Snow Feather Liz’s (let’s get it right, Donald 😜) personal book on the effects of decades of discrimination in the United States and ways we might choose to respond to them, is a motivating and straightforward read for the summer. Did you know that among full time workers, blacks earn 59 cents and latinos earn 70 cents for every dollar earned by whites? Or that compared to white families, black and latino families are more likely to have nothing in retirement savings? As Elizabeth Warren says, “an economy is great only if it produces the things we value most, things like security and a chance for our children to do better than we did.”

— JG

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The key to securing your or your loved one's release. At Vonzella we're helping the unconvicted navigate bail and move on with their lives.

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