Alec Karakatsanis
Alec Karakatsanis
Alec Karakatsanis is an American police and prison abolitionist, civil rights lawyer, and author. He is the founder of Civil Rights Corps, a non-profit organization founded in 2016 that challenges systemic injustice in the U.S. legal system. Karakatsanis' legal work has targeted, among other things, the American money bail system. He has written and spoken extensively about the negative impacts of
"Copaganda … is the system of government and news media propaganda that promotes mass incarceration, justifies the barbarities and profits that accompany it, and distorts our sense of what threatens us and what keeps us safe."
"Nobody should be held in a cage because theyre poor. Detention should be based on objective evidentiary factors, like whether the person is a danger to the community or a flight risk — not how much moneys in their pocket. ... Its so obvious to any person who spends even a small amount of time thinking about any of this stuff that theres absolutely no reason to even have pre-trial detention in these minor cases. Theres no reason why someone should be held in jail for a week or even four days for not having a leash on their dog or a headlight being out or driving with a suspended license. Theres no reason why an arrestee should be held in jail because hes poor in one of those cases, and theres no question that any of these people are dangerous to the community."
