Raj Jayadev, "Protect Your People: How Ordinary Families Are Using Participatory Defense to Challenge Mass Incarceration" (New Press, 2023)

Raj Jayadev, "Protect Your People: How Ordina...

Up next

The Fog of Accountability: How Institutions Keep Voters from Holding Their Local Governments Accountable with Justin de Benedictis-Kessner (U Chicago Press, 2026)

In the United States, hundreds of thousands of elected and appointed officials serve more than 50,000 subnational governments, making important decisions about services ranging from education to infrastructure to policing. The provision of critical city services shapes citizens’ ...  Show more

Carceral Utopia: A Global History of Model Prisons with Gregory Salle (Polity, 2026)

What underpins the legitimacy of the prison system in the twenty-first century? Despite numerous challenges and setbacks, there is still a widespread belief that prisons can be improved in a socially progressive way. Even today, 'model prisons' are being built that seek to fix th ...  Show more

Recommended Episodes

Community-powered criminal justice reform | Raj Jayadev
TED Talks Daily

Community organizer Raj Jayadev wants to transform the US court system through "participatory defense" -- a growing movement that empowers families and community members to impact their loved ones' court cases. He shares the remarkable results of their work -- including more than ...  Show more

How to create a more just future with your community (with Raj Jayadev)
How to Be a Better Human

How would you describe your community? And what if the stories you tell have the power to save someone from injustice? With the popularity and support of movements like Black Lives Matter, it seems the world is reckoning with how we think about the systems and institutions that s ...  Show more

How The Bail Project is reforming criminal justice in the US | Robin Steinberg and Manoush Zomorodi
TED Talks Daily

Nearly half a million people in the US are in jail right now without being convicted of a crime, simply because they can’t come up with the money to pay cash bail. To try and fix this system, public defender and activist Robin Steinberg asked a straightforward question: What if w ...  Show more