SJC Exchange Library

Listen to the Center for Court Innovation's latest episode of the New Thinking Podcast entitled Petty Offense, Lifetime Consequences? Misdemeanor Injustice with Alexandra Natapoff. In this episode, host Matthew Watkins speaks with Alexandra Natapoff, professor of law at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of Punishment Without Crime: How Our Massive Misdemeanor System Traps the Innocent and Makes America More Unequal.

Natapoff sees a misdemeanor system that is "as influential an engine of social and racial inequality as low-quality public schools, the unavailability of public housing, or our thinning social safety net." However, she says the means of fixing the system-starting with greatly reducing the number of people caught up in it in the first place-are obvious, and already taking place in pockets across the country.


Link to episode web-page: https://www.courtinnovation.org/publications/natapoff-podcast