READERS GUIDE

1.   The book opens with the author’s own teenage arrest. Did knowing the outcome shape your reading of later stories where mercy was absent? If so, how?

2.   We learn that roughly 70 percent of people in U.S. jails are held pretrial. How did this statistic change the way you understood the presumption of innocence?

3.   In the chapters on bail, what moments most clearly showed how freedom is tied to wealth?

4.   The book describes people pleading guilty simply to go home. How did the statistic that detained people plead guilty nearly three times faster affect your understanding of “choice” in the system?

5.   What was your reaction to the story of Kalief Browder and the impact of solitary confinement?

6.   Galvin Almanza describes judges making decisions in mere minutes that shape lives for years. Which scenes best illustrated the imbalance of time and power?

7.   Galvin Almanza recounts the case of a woman named Jannell, who was convicted of insurance fraud based on weak or misleading evidence. What emotional impact did that story have on you?

8.   The jury chapter explains how low juror pay excludes many people. Does that statistic reshape your idea of who actually gets to decide guilt or innocence? If so, how?

9.   Have you ever served on a jury in a criminal trial? If so, can you recall being given education on sentencing consequences? Would that have changed your experience? How so?

10. Galvin Almanza cites that nearly 80 percent of people in the system rely on public defenders. Have you or a loved one had experience with a public defender? Has the book changed the way you consider public defense as a public good?

11. How did you react when you read that 90 percent of children waive their right to a lawyer in custody and over one-third then falsely confess? Did these statistics affect your sense of urgency about this issue?

12. How did the statistic that suicide is the leading cause of death in jails and data on chronic illness among incarcerated people change how you think about jail as a public health issue?

13. Galvin Almanza argues that punishment is often mistaken for safety. Which statistic or story most challenged that assumption? Does this affect the way you think about what it means to be “tough on crime”?

14. The book highlights cities where violence interruption programs reduced homicides by 20 to 30 percent. How did those examples complicate traditional ideas about policing?

15. Galvin Almanza describes budgets as moral documents. Do you agree? Why or why not?

16. The book shows how court debt traps people in cycles of punishment. Which statistic about fees or probation costs stayed with you?

17. Galvin Almanza repeatedly emphasizes incentives over bad actors. Which example best illustrated how “good people” uphold harmful systems?

18. Did the data on racial disparities in arrests and sentencing surprise or impact you? How so?

19. Which moment most clearly showed how race shapes everyday legal outcomes?

20. Which reform example felt most hopeful or exciting? Why?

21. Did learning about wrongful convictions tied to faulty forensics change your trust in “scientific” evidence? In what way?

22. Galvin Almanza writes that mercy is not softness but responsibility. Do you agree? Why or why not?

23. Which statistic or story from the book would you share first with someone skeptical of reform? Why?

24. Which of the book’s reforms do you think would be easiest to gain popular or legislative support for where you live? What argument would you use to promote it?

25. Did you have to confront any of your own personal biases while reading the book? If so, which ones?