"In December 2021, while working as a public defender, I attended a rally on the steps of Kings Criminal Court in Brooklyn..."

"Doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results is oftenas the definition of insanity..."

"My heart was beating fast as I listened to the words leave my colleague’s mouth: “I hope you are sitting down, Chanel..."

"As a youth defense attorney in Brooklyn, for the past five years, I witnessed firsthand the criminalization of young people..."

"I remember sitting in the family room of my childhood home watching a movie about a six-year-old Black girl with a white bow in her hair walking through the doors of a segregated elementary school..."

"For nearly 40 minutes, unclothed and unprotected, confused and now unsafe in her own home, Young repeatedly told the officers that they had the wrong home..."

"I have been close to gun violence my entire life. Growing up on the South Side of Chicago, I’ve seen my classmates carry firearms to keep themselves and their families safe from harm..."

"In January 6, 2021, a young woman in Tigard, Oregon called the police. She was seeking help for Jacob MacDuff, a 26-year-old man who was in a mental health crisis..."

"Mr. Hechinger is a senior staff attorney and the director of policy at Brooklyn Defender Services, a public defense law firm representing 30,000 people arrested in Brooklyn each year..."

"With a nearly $1 billion funding disparity, it's no wonder California's prisons are overcrowded with low-income Black and brown people..."