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enelvee's review against another edition
3.0
Contains quite the lecture on Rolando Cruz and some other hideous examples of "justice" and "prosecutors who can't admit they blew it."
donyala's review against another edition
5.0
It made me want to be a better lawyer to address the ordinary injustices that the law and our judicial system imposes upon our citizenry in the interests of efficiency.
holtfan's review
3.0
2.5 stars
Disclaimer: I'm pumped full of antihistamine at the moment and so I'm not sure how coherent this review will be. But it is too early to go to bed so I'm going to fight sleepiness by trying to collect my thoughts.
I'm truly torn on how to rate Ordinary Injustice. I didn't particularly "like it" (definition of three stars); at the same time, "it was ok" (two stars) feels inadequate. It deserves better than okay. The author clearly put more than two stars worth of work into it. It shows years of research and interviews and engaging with the criminal justice system. And I feel unusually guilty dismissing all that work simply because it didn't strike a cord with me the way it did other readers.
But it didn't strike a cord, at all. I am not left feeling indignant, accepting, or even resigned. I agree we have a deeply flawed system. And this book does draw attention to it. But it lacked hard research or data and that left me struggling throughout to take it too seriously.
The first, and perhaps biggest, problem with the book is simply the layout. It breaks into four chapters with an introduction and conclusion to tie things together. Practically, this means each chapter is roughly 60 pages. And it is simply too much. It is hard to digest everything because you never get a breather point. You just keep going and going and going and oh my gosh the chapter doesn't end I want to be done already. I know that sounds dramatic and I kind of mean it to be. But in a book like this which is heavy on emotion and narrative and light on actual statics, you need a breather occasionally to let your head catch up with your emotions.
Second, though written by someone with a law degree, the book reads much more like a journalistic exposé than a legal critique. Though I will give Bach credit for not making herself the heroine of her work like most journalists, she is clearly present throughout, with her biases and reactions open to the reader. I didn't go in expecting objectivity--there is clearly a level of indignation that must fuel a book like this--but I especially struggled with her chapter on under-enforcement from the prosecution. She focuses on one prosecutor, one office, and a handful of heart-tugging stories that even in the most positive light don't sound like a slam dunk for the state. I don't blame the prosecutor for letting them drop. Of course, child victims and abused girlfriends do get railroaded in the system, and I've lived in the south long enough to know that personal biases can color justice, but the exclusive focus on stories like theirs gave me a bad taste.
Third, Bach likes rabbit trails. Sometimes, they seem to add to her overall narrative. (Like, the different ways judgeship are appointed in various states.) Other times, they feel extra and unnecessary. (Like lengthy histories on domestic abuse or statutory rape statutes in the U.S., pertinent only in that she seems to determined to pin historical biases on the prosecutor without much evidence.)
I don't lightly dismiss this book and I understand the lack of "hard" data. The fact that she concludes by basically calling for more attempts to gather data seems to give answer enough for its lack here. But I was left skeptical of sample size, interviewees, and choice of case studies. The book does not try to give a holistic look at the justice system and instead focuses on individual narratives. The problem is, without more facts about Bach's journey, I at least was left wondering how many of these were found at the bottom of the barrel and how many were actually "ordinary injustices."
Disclaimer: I'm pumped full of antihistamine at the moment and so I'm not sure how coherent this review will be. But it is too early to go to bed so I'm going to fight sleepiness by trying to collect my thoughts.
I'm truly torn on how to rate Ordinary Injustice. I didn't particularly "like it" (definition of three stars); at the same time, "it was ok" (two stars) feels inadequate. It deserves better than okay. The author clearly put more than two stars worth of work into it. It shows years of research and interviews and engaging with the criminal justice system. And I feel unusually guilty dismissing all that work simply because it didn't strike a cord with me the way it did other readers.
But it didn't strike a cord, at all. I am not left feeling indignant, accepting, or even resigned. I agree we have a deeply flawed system. And this book does draw attention to it. But it lacked hard research or data and that left me struggling throughout to take it too seriously.
The first, and perhaps biggest, problem with the book is simply the layout. It breaks into four chapters with an introduction and conclusion to tie things together. Practically, this means each chapter is roughly 60 pages. And it is simply too much. It is hard to digest everything because you never get a breather point. You just keep going and going and going and oh my gosh the chapter doesn't end I want to be done already. I know that sounds dramatic and I kind of mean it to be. But in a book like this which is heavy on emotion and narrative and light on actual statics, you need a breather occasionally to let your head catch up with your emotions.
Second, though written by someone with a law degree, the book reads much more like a journalistic exposé than a legal critique. Though I will give Bach credit for not making herself the heroine of her work like most journalists, she is clearly present throughout, with her biases and reactions open to the reader. I didn't go in expecting objectivity--there is clearly a level of indignation that must fuel a book like this--but I especially struggled with her chapter on under-enforcement from the prosecution. She focuses on one prosecutor, one office, and a handful of heart-tugging stories that even in the most positive light don't sound like a slam dunk for the state. I don't blame the prosecutor for letting them drop. Of course, child victims and abused girlfriends do get railroaded in the system, and I've lived in the south long enough to know that personal biases can color justice, but the exclusive focus on stories like theirs gave me a bad taste.
Third, Bach likes rabbit trails. Sometimes, they seem to add to her overall narrative. (Like, the different ways judgeship are appointed in various states.) Other times, they feel extra and unnecessary. (Like lengthy histories on domestic abuse or statutory rape statutes in the U.S., pertinent only in that she seems to determined to pin historical biases on the prosecutor without much evidence.)
I don't lightly dismiss this book and I understand the lack of "hard" data. The fact that she concludes by basically calling for more attempts to gather data seems to give answer enough for its lack here. But I was left skeptical of sample size, interviewees, and choice of case studies. The book does not try to give a holistic look at the justice system and instead focuses on individual narratives. The problem is, without more facts about Bach's journey, I at least was left wondering how many of these were found at the bottom of the barrel and how many were actually "ordinary injustices."
scottshepard's review
4.0
Amy Bach’s thesis is that there are deep deep flaws in our criminal justice system. She sets out to prove this with four stories, each highlighting a particular area of oversight or undersight: public defenders, underzealous DAs, lazy Judges, and overzealous DAs. For the most part, she largely succeeds in her quest or showing how underfunding or merely going through the motions when it comes to administering justice can be detrimental. There is a real clash between the ideals of the American justice system, and the day-to-day drudge and grind and the cultural values of the American population. This book is long on well-documented injustices but short on real solutions. There is a perfunctory conclusions chapter in which Amy throws out some ideas, but overall she is trying to point out systemic, long-term, widespread problems. It is quite a fast and easy read and often left my jaw on the floor reading some of things that judges, attorneys, and cops had to say. Quite a fascinating, aggravating, and depressing read. Some chapters are better than others. If all four were as amazing as the first this would rank five stars, but the later three don’t hold a candle to her opening anecdote.
acsinger's review
5.0
I read this book for my Criminal Law class this week and honestly, so glad I did. This book is fantastic.
It presents a lot of inner workings and corruption about the justice system that most of us would never know about otherwise. We have this very basic assumption that everything goes the way it should and as expected when really, so so so much injustice happens in the day to day. Injustice we can never know about. It really opened my eyes and made me think, hence the 5 star rating. The icing on this thought provoking cake is that the way the stories are told is very easy to read and accessible, especially for a challenging subject. I never felt confused and it was really engaging, truly telling a rich story.
The other thing I loved about this was it was just so damn interesting. I was reading this in a time crunch for a class, so my intention going in was to mostly skim it. However, as I read, I couldn't help but slow down and actually read the words and take them all in. Everything is just so interesting and insightful.
Really loved this book, think it's a great read!
It presents a lot of inner workings and corruption about the justice system that most of us would never know about otherwise. We have this very basic assumption that everything goes the way it should and as expected when really, so so so much injustice happens in the day to day. Injustice we can never know about. It really opened my eyes and made me think, hence the 5 star rating. The icing on this thought provoking cake is that the way the stories are told is very easy to read and accessible, especially for a challenging subject. I never felt confused and it was really engaging, truly telling a rich story.
The other thing I loved about this was it was just so damn interesting. I was reading this in a time crunch for a class, so my intention going in was to mostly skim it. However, as I read, I couldn't help but slow down and actually read the words and take them all in. Everything is just so interesting and insightful.
Really loved this book, think it's a great read!
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