Thank you for this excellent story. I think Professor Stuntz is telling us that the justice system is a mirror of our social values, reflecting ingrained racism and deliberate economic inequity. That's why there's no six-step "how to" chapter at the end. We can "reform" procedures this way and that; but the results will always be what we want them to be, what politicians see that the voters want. We are faced now with the disgraceful truth that middle-class white America is finally interested in reducing our outrageous imprisonment rates -- but only to save money. A nation full of lives and families and communities destroyed by a manipulated legal system was not enough of a reason. And because the reason is wrong, the result will again backfire. Michelle Alexander's book, "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness," tells the same saddening and infuriating story. But she does talk about remedy, and I encourage everyone -- everyone -- to read her book, too. It is breathtaking, it is shocking. Repairing this wrong will take a moral revolution, one that is long overdue.

Thanks for a fine portrait of an important thinker. While the race issue is a big part of the picture, the extent to which the legal system has abandoned a search for truth and justice holds for anyone. It is not news that the system has given priority to procedure over content. Perhaps this book can stimulate a process of transition.