UM Common Reading Experience 2017: Just Mercy

The ACLU’s work on racial profiling encompasses major initiatives in litigation, public education, and advocacy, including lobbying for passage of data collection and anti-profiling legislation and litigating on behalf of individuals who have been victims of racial profiling by airlines, police, and government agencies. View that work on this website

The Counted is a project by the Guardian working to count the number of people killed by police and other law enforcement agencies in the United States throughout 2015, to monitor their demographics and to tell the stories of how they died.

The Death Penalty Information Center is a national non-profit organization serving the media and the public with analysis and information on issues concerning capital punishment. The Center promotes informed discussion of the death penalty by preparing in-depth reports, conducting briefings for journalists, and serving as a resource to those working on this issue. The Center releases reports on various issues related to the death penalty such as arbitrariness, costs, innocence, and race. They also produce an annual report on the death penalty, highlighting significant developments and featuring the latest statistics.

Bryan Stevenson is the executive director of Equal Justice Initiative, a non-profit organization that provides legal representation to indigent defendants and prisoners who have been denied fair treatment in the legal system. This website features reports, personal stories, fact sheets, statistics, and multimedia relating to the work done through EJI

Fatal Encounters is project that attempts to create a comprehensive national database of people who are killed through interactions with police. This complex and rigorous project uses several processes of data collection to ensure a high level of validity.

The Innocence Project is a national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.

The Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi School of Law is a public interest law firm advocating for human rights and social justice through litigation.

The George C. Cochran Innocence Project is committed to providing the highest quality legal representation to its clients: Mississippi state prisoners serving significant periods of incarceration who have cognizable claims of wrongful conviction. In addition, the Project seeks to identify and address systemic problems in the criminal justice system and to develop initiatives designed to raise public and political awareness of the prevalence, causes and societal costs of wrongful convictions.

The National Registry of Exonerations is a project of the University of Michigan Law School. The Registry provides detailed information about every known exoneration in the United States since 1989.

A fair and effective justice system is part of the foundation of a successful society, affecting every American citizen, every day. Concerns about the enormous costs of the system exist alongside deep uncertainty about the efficacy of law enforcement and correctional strategies. Explore dozens of reports and projects related to this from the University of Chicago's NORC Criminal Justice website.

Established in 1986, The Sentencing Project works for a fair and effective U.S. criminal justice system by promoting reforms in sentencing policy, addressing unjust racial disparities and practices, and advocating for alternatives to incarceration.

The ICPS conducts research on prisons and imprisonment; develops and disseminates knowledge about how imprisonment should be used; and contributes to improved policy and practice in prisons across the world. The site includes research and publications, briefings, and guides.

The mission of this U.S. government website is to "collect, analyze, publish, and disseminate information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government." Browse by topic or search by keyword.

The leading source of quality data about America's people and economy.

This publication presents information about youthful offenders (age 25 or younger for purposes of this report), including their demographic characteristics, what type of offenses they were sentenced for, how they were sentenced, and the extent of their criminal histories. The report also discusses the intersection of neuroscience and law, and how this intersection has influenced the treatment of youthful offenders in the criminal justice system. (Published May 26, 2017)