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21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent indictment of the criminal justice system, April 20, 2007
I am not fond of criminals. Nor can my politics be considered left-wing. However, I do believe in the Constitutional right to due process and David Feige's "Indefensible" shows how Americans are routinely denied this right without a whimper from the elitist liberals and their mainstream press pals. Steve Bogira tried showing the nature of the criminal justice system in his "Courtroom 302" ( Courtroom 302: A Year Behind the Scenes in an American Criminal Courthouse, but that came out sounding like a left-wing whine blaming everyone except the lawbreaker.
Feige was a public defender in New York for more than 15 years. He tells the story of those years with a touch of humor, an understated admission of the psychic pain he suffered as the system ground down defendants, their families and their lawyers, while elevating and protecting incompetent (if not corrupt) judges, prosecutors and police. His story has the ring of truth. He talks about innocent people railroaded into pleading guilty just to escape the system. Of evil judges who gave no second thought to wrecking families and lives. (He names names.) He doesn't resort to the usual left-wing nostrums of blaming society, demanding more money to perpeptuate dependent welfare or any of that.
By simply stating the facts from his perspective, Feige makes a strong argument for thorough reform of the criminal justice system. Right now the system isn't concerned with justice, but simply keeping itself going. As I said, I have no sympathy for actual criminals and it irritated me a bit to read of Feige negotiating down sentences of robbers and murderers. My attitude toward them is more like lock them up and throw away the key. But Feige reminds us that every criminal defendant has unalienable Constitutional rights - and that these rights are being violated day in and day out in New York's criminal courts. (Bogira attempted to make the same point about Chicago.) More than likely the same can be said for any criminal court system in America. The system is dysfunctional and doesn't work. So plea bargains are the currency of the day. Society suffers because bad people come back to the streets to soon. But innocent people suffer too, denied a trial, forced into pleas that may harm them or even ruin their lives.
It's a lousy system, far from the promises of the Constitution, and one that must be reformed on every level. Feige makes his points without beating the reader's head against the wall and he makes them effectively. He doesn't make any left-wing, criminal-coddling arguments: he doesen't have to. His experiences as a public defender, representing the truly guilty, the innocent and just those whom life dealt a bad hand to are all that's needed to waken your conscience to the miscarriage of justice we call our criminal justice system.
Jerry
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
FANTASTIC, April 12, 2007
'Indefensible' is brilliant. Feige is a very talented writer with gripping subject matter. I don't know how to describe the difference between great writing (which is rare) and writing that isn't good (which is everywhere). But I know it when I read it, and this is it. Feige completely transports the reader, you are there with him, and all the senses are engaged. You smell the urine, vomit, and the stench of homelessness. You taste the fried, fatty fast food that is the only eating option in the vicinity of the courthouse. You hear the yelling, the crying, the footsteps on the tile floors. You see the ill-fitting, second-hand suits, the inventive hairstyles of the projects. You feel the touch of the crowds, the cold air outside, the interminable wait for the elevator, the sexual tension with an ADA (in the elevator!).
The book reads better than any legal fiction and obviously, because it is true, has much more emotional impact. I can't count the times (mostly in the first half) that I laughed out loud. Absurdities abound, and he front-loads the book with the funny stuff. It's a good strategy, because once you're lulled in, he really socks it to you. In one simple story of trying to get through the endless line for the metal detectors (just to enter the courthouse), he tells of the court officers confiscating a sandwich from a homeless woman - the only food she has to eat that day. After trashing her sandwich, she begs them to let her go through and not have to re-enter the line and wait another hour, they eject her anyway. She's lost her place in line, most likely lost her all-important court appearance, and she's lost the only food she would eat that day.
We have all been victims of capricious abuses of power by small, cruel people who delight in upsetting other people's lives just for the heck of it, or even just robotic rule-followers who wreak havoc when they could just as easily think for themselves but inexplicably just refuse to do so. Think about all the times you've been bumped from a flight for no good reason, forced to sit in some random airport for 6 hours, missing your connection, losing your bags. Think about the blank face of the airline worker behind the counter, not answering your questions but telling you to sit down and stop bothering her and avoiding looking straight in your face. Think about how angry you get, how you feel abused and powerless. Multiply that by a hundred-thousand, when the result isn't being late for a wedding or funeral or a meeting, but the possibility of losing your family, livelihood, home and freedom, that is being put in PRISON. Showing people what really goes on, what is a daily fear and struggle for all poor people and disproportionately for people of color is not liberal or conservative, it is just truth-telling, and in this book it is out-right entertaining and inspiring. This book will make you angry and indignant, and you will think that there is nothing you can do against the ocean of hopelessness that is urban poverty. But you will want to do something, and maybe, if you don't just put the book down and go back to your regular life, you will do something.
Those of us who would like to stay as far away as we can from the criminal justice system can still make change. Poverty, crime and hopelessness are all intertwined, and there is plenty a reader can be inspired to do after reading this book (if we can't all become PDs). Volunteering our time, skills, expertise, and yes, money, to any of the many organizations that are working for social and environmental justice is a good start. The holistic approach taken by the Bronx Defenders is an inspiration for how we could all live in a better, safer, more just society.
That, and tell your friends to buy/read the book.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Needed Sense of Balance, May 22, 2007
I pre-ordered this book right before I took the bar exam, but didn't get around to reading it until I visited my parents' house almost a year later. In the meantime I'd passed the bar, been sworn in as a lawyer, and spent nine months as an ADA in the Big City (not the same Big City where Feige practiced, but not much changes in the grimy world of high-volume, high-stress courthouses). I found this book when I came back home for vacation, and just finished reading it last week.
I'm glad I accidentally waited so long before reading it. I think a book like this looks different from the inside than the outside. It has different benefits: rather than giving you a glimpse inside a new world, it makes you look at familiar surroundings from a new perspective. In a career where every professional relationship is adversarial and the other side is often met with suspicion (and often with good reason), it's invaluable to get an honest view of what the other side is thinking. Feige's book is an excellent reminder of the fact that we're still all human in a sometimes inhumane system, and of how it is possible for good and worthy people to stand on both sides of the courtroom. I realize that sounds incredibly basic, but it's so easy to forget in the battlefield. The book provides some reassurance that I'm not failing in my job when I cut defendants breaks, or withdraw charges when justice doesn't line up with the letter of the law. And it reminds me to be decent to the defenders who are decent in turn, because the good ones are horribly overworked and underappreciated in what they do. I'm grateful to be reminded of those things. I needed it.
Of course the book has its flaws; all books do. Nothing is said about extremely pro-defense judges who are as unfeeling toward victims and their families as Feige's pro-prosecution judges are toward defendants. Nothing is said about good cops, or humane court staff, and almost nothing about inept or indifferent public defenders, or the crimes of which their clients are guilty (as, indeed, most are). But the book isn't intended as an even-handed, clear-eyed evaluation of the system; it's a heartfelt and impassioned piece of advocacy for one particular point of view.
So, again, I'm grateful to Feige for writing this book. It's well worth reading. Rarely does this particular corner of the legal profession have such a skilled and passionate advocate.
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