Protect Your People: How Ordinary Families Are Using Participatory Defense to Challenge Mass Incarceration

Shortlisted, 2025 Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice

An eye—opening look at “participatory defense,” the innovative practice that allows the loved ones of those charged with crimes to help influence the outcome of court cases, by the MacArthur Award–winning activist

The courthouse is an important part of every story of mass incarceration in America and, too often, it is a place of powerlessness for those facing criminal charges, their families, and their communities...