Emily Galvin Almanza says, for the most part, the criminal justice system has only one setting: punishment. But punishment isn’t safety. It isn’t even accountability.

Galvin Almanza makes that case in her new book, The Price of Mercy: Unfair Trials, a Violent System, and a Public Defender’s Search for Justice in America.

But the book isn’t only about problems; it’s also about solutions.

“We don’t have to fall prey to the worst aspects of our history,” contends Galvin Almanza. “We can build something better.”

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