Beyond Just Mercy

The very title Just Mercy makes a statement about Stevenson’s outlook: Justice must include mercy—the idea that even people who make mistakes can be granted the grace of second chances. More than that, he argues, only a system that incorporates a merciful empathy can break the cycle of prejudice that turns justice into injustice. If a person commits a crime to escape a horrible situation, what should their punishment be? If a convicted criminal expresses regret, what can we all gainby showing mercy on them? Human behavior is nuanced and complex,and the systems by which we hold others accountable must be, too.

In 1985, Anthony Ray Hinton was arrested and charged with two counts of capital murder in Alabama. It was a case of mistaken identity, and Hinton believed that the truth would prove his innocence.But he soon discovered that there was a different system of justice for a poor black man in the South. He spent three decades on death row before Bryan Stevenson helped him win his release in 2015. Hinton’s memoir is a testament to perseverance, imagination, and even joy in the face of injustice.

Read The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row

Susan Burton, a Black woman who survived a traumatic childhood and multiple stints in prison, went on to found an organization called A New Way of Life that helps formerly incarcerated women get back on their feet. She has both helped hundreds of women individually and also advocated for prison reform at state and national levels. Her memoir humanizes the impact of mass incarceration in the United States and informs how we can address impactful changes in this flawed system.

Read Becoming Ms. Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women

Transformative justice seeks to solve the problem of violence at the grassroots level, without relying on punishment, incarceration, or policing. Community-based approaches to preventing crime and repairing its damage have existed for centuries. However, in the putative atmosphere of contemporary criminal justice systems, they are often marginalized and operate under the radar. Editors Ejeris Dixon and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha put these strategies front and center as real alternatives to today’s failed models of confinement and “correction.”

Read Beyond Survival : Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement