Lessons from the Incarcerated

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-3-2026

Citation / Publisher Attribution

Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law, Volume 23, No. 2, Pp. 289-306

Abstract

What should defense attorneys, prosecutors, and judges know about criminal justice that they do not? What can the incarcerated tell lawyers and legal educators about how the law works, and does not? These are the questions that drive this Commentary, and its argument for curious listening – taking the time to hear the life stories of defendants and victims – as opposed to forensic listening, meaning an exclusive focus on legal facts and arguments. The observations of those with long experience as subjects of the criminal justice system shed a different light on how both practitioners and law professors might see justice and how, in the case of appointed counsel, they might be chosen for their work.

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