A review by scottshepard
Ordinary Injustice: How America Holds Court by Amy Bach

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.