Copyright © 2022 by Victoria Pratt
Failed, biased, hostile: these are the words many use to describe the condition of the U.S. court system today. In The Power of Dignity, acclaimed criminal justice reformer Victoria Pratt offers a path forward: treat people with dignity, respect, and fairness, the cornerstone of procedural justice, while seeing and hearing their humanity.
The Black and Latina daughter of a working-class family, Pratt learned to treat everyone with dignity no matter their background. When she became Newark Municipal Court’s chief judge, she knew well the inequities that poor, mentally ill, Black, and Brown people faced in the criminal justice system.
Pratt’s reforms transformed her courtroom into a place for problem-solving and a resource for healing. She assigned essays to defendants so that the court could understand their hardships and kept people out of jail through alternative sentencing and nonprofit partnerships. She became the judge of second chances because she knew too few get a first one.
The Power of Dignity shows how we can transform courtrooms, neighborhoods, and our nation to support the vulnerable and heal community rifts. That is the power of dignity.
The Honorable Victoria Pratt served as the chief judge of the Newark Municipal Court, is a professor at the Newark School of Criminal Justice, and has taught at the Rutgers School of Law. Her TED talk clip «How Judges Can Show Respect» has been viewed over thirty million times on Facebook. She lives in Montclair, New Jersey, with her husband and son.