Why Mass Incarceration Defines Us as a Society

Underwritten by  Barnes & Thornburg, LLP

Note: Due to contractual restrictions, this presentation will not be recorded or archived.

Bryan StevensonBryan Stevenson is a public-interest lawyer who has dedicated his career to helping the poor, the incarcerated and the condemned. He’s the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, an Alabama-based group that has won major legal challenges eliminating excessive and unfair sentencing, exonerating innocent prisoners on death row, confronting abuse of the incarcerated and the mentally ill, and aiding children prosecuted as adults.

Equal Justice Initiative recently won a historic ruling in the U.S. Supreme Court holding that mandatory life-without-parole sentences for all children 17 or younger are unconstitutional. Mr. Stevenson’s work fighting poverty and challenging racial discrimination in the criminal justice system has won him numerous awards. He is a graduate of the Harvard Law School and the Harvard School of Government, and has been awarded 14 honorary doctorate degrees.

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Equal Justice Initiative believes the opposite of poverty is not wealth. It’s justice.


Bryan Stevenson at TED.

CNN’s Christiane Amanpour speaks with Bryan Stevenson.

Tavis Smiley and Bryan Stevenson discuss mass incarceration and the need for reform.

Bryan Stevenson on The Colbert Report.