Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson Analysis Essay Example

According to EJI, "More than 60,000 people in the U.S. are held in solitary confinement." They’re isolated in small cells for 23 hours a day, allowed out only for showers, brief exercise, or medical visits, and are denied calls or visits from family members. Studies show that people held in long-term solitary confinement suffer from anxiety, paranoia, perceptual disturbances, and deep depression. (EJI.org: prison conditions).

Just Mercy is about Bryan Stevenson's journey in his career as a lawyer and being an advocate for the wrongfully accused and harshly sentenced in the U.S. criminal justice system. Bryan talks about the many experiences and mistreatment his clients faced and the multiple elements that play into the criminal justice system. One of the inmates/clients Bryan helps is Walter McMillian, a black man who was wrongfully accused of murder and sentenced to death in Alabama in the 1980s. Bryan runs a legal project based in Alabama called EJI. EJI helps inmates on death row and harshly punishes prisoners. Throughout the novel, EJI expanded and counited to help harshly punished prisoners and help give awareness.

One can believe that the U.S. criminal justice system is broken and causes many injustices and abuses.

One example from the text is "Women at Tutwiler were being raped, sexually assaulted, extorted, and abused by male prison guards in countless ways." The male warden allowed the male guards entry into the showers during prison counts "(Stevenson,205). In addition, these details show the physical, mental, and sexual abuse women go through in prison and how poorly the prison staff treats prisoners. The prison deprives many women of their fundamental human rights. This abuse is normalized due to the influence of policies, a segregated society, and those with power and privilege. This makes the environment for women in prisons more dangerous and more vulnerable to violence. Prison conditions are cruel for instance, on pg.129, ” Solitary confinement at Apalachee means living in a concrete box the size of a walk-in closet. You get your meals through a slot, you do not see other inmates and you never touch or get near another human being. If you “act out” by talking back or refusing to follow an order, you are forced to sleep on the concrete floor without a mattress…You get three showers a week and are allowed 45 minutes in a small caged area for exercise a few times a week”(Stevenson,129). This evidence reveals how bad the conditions of solitary confinement are. The way solitary confinement is run makes the person lose themselves and their sanity due to the lack of communication and interaction from being locked up 24 hours a day. A person must have human interaction, and when you withdraw that from them, it can negatively affect their mental health. As a result, the inmate is physically, emotionally, and mentally tortured. Secondly, the justice system is corrupt. Hence, it shows how the system failed to give Trina the proper resources and counseling, knowing she wasn't mentally stable and she was pregnant, and didn't give her the options and resources she needed. The lawyer wasn't trying his best to give Trina the best-imposed sentence and to get her tried as a minor. The system exploited Trina because she didn't have the proper legal assistance. They used this as a way to give Trina a life sentence for a crime she didn't intend to commit. The system also lets the officer have protection just because he is in law enforcement and is in power.