The Criminalization of Poverty: Bail with Alec Karakatsanis

Every day, there are hundreds of thousands of people in the United States who are in jail simply because they are too poor to buy their freedom. In this episode, DA Boudin and Rachel discuss one of the most important issues in the criminal justice reform movement: cash bail. For this discussion, they are joined by Alec Karakatsanis, the founder of Civil Rights Corps and the author of the book Usual Cruelty: The Complicity of Lawyers in the Criminal Injustice System. Alec, one of the leading bail reform lawyers in the country who successfully sued Harris County, Texas over its bail system, explains the history and practice of bail in the United States, as well as its impact on the legal system overall. Alec, DA Boudin and Rachel also explore the dangers of risk assessment tools as alternatives to bail, as well as pending bail reform litigation. DA Boudin also describes his groundbreaking policy to stop seeking cash bail in all San Francisco cases. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in criminal justice reform.

You can listen to The Criminalization of Poverty: Bail with Alec Karakatsanis online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

The Criminalization of Poverty: Bail with Alec Karakatsanis is an episode from Chasing Justice by Rachel Marshall.

This episode is 01:01:00 long.

This episode was published on Aug 4, 2020.

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