One of Mashable's
“17 books every activist should read in 2019”
In the eloquent
tradition of Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy, an award-winning leader
in the movement to end mass incarceration takes on the vexing problem
of violent crime
Although over half
the people incarcerated in America today have committed violent
offenses, the focus of reformers has been almost entirely on
nonviolent and drug offenses. Danielle Sered’s brilliant and
groundbreaking Until We Reckon steers directly and unapologetically
into the question of violence, offering approaches that will help end
mass incarceration and increase safety.
Widely recognized as
one of the leading proponents of a restorative approach to violent
crime, Sered asks us to reconsider the purposes of incarceration and
argues persuasively that the needs of survivors of violent crime are
better met by asking people who commit violence to accept
responsibility for their actions and make amends in ways that are
meaningful to those they have hurt—none of which happens in the
context of a criminal trial or a prison sentence.
Sered launched and
directs Common Justice, one of the few organizations offering
alternatives to incarceration for people who commit serious violent
crime and which has produced immensely promising results.
Critically, Sered
argues that the reckoning owed is not only on the part of those who
have committed violence, but also by our nation’s overreliance on
incarceration to produce safety—at great cost to communities,
survivors, racial equity, and the very fabric of our democracy.