PBEye Blog - Pro Bono Institute

Pro Bono Summer Reading

May 31, 2018

Summer is finally here! No, it’s not technically yet, but it feels like it should be! There is no time like the present to get your summer reading in order and we have recommendations for you. This summer, we are focusing our suggestions on criminal justice reform and its many issues, including mass incarceration, racial disparity in prosecuting and sentencing, and the criminalization of poverty. PBI has been directly involved in criminal justice reform efforts through our Minnesota Collaborative Justice Project. The Project involves stakeholders from more than 25 organizations working together to reduce recidivism and dramatically improve the experiences and

Pro Bono Summer Reading

May 25, 2017

Interested in a good read for the upcoming long weekend? Check out Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Harvard University Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Justice and Poverty Project, Matthew Desmond. It’s been described by The New York Times as “an astonishing book,” and we agree. Desmond takes readers into the heart and homes of eight families in Milwaukee, America’s fourth poorest city, as they struggle to maintain their housing. Using on-the-ground research and data, Desmond explores poverty, economic exploitation, income inequality, housing, and race at a time when 1 in 8 tenants have faced involuntary

Pro Bono Summer Reading

May 21, 2015

Interested in a good read for the upcoming long weekend? With recent attention focused on events in Baltimore, Cleveland, Ferguson, Staten Island, and beyond, look no further than Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative. It’s one of the most inspiring books we’ve read this year. In his best-selling memoir, Stevenson tells the story of how he became a public interest lawyer, dedicating his career to defending the poor and the wrongly convicted and reforming our nation’s broken justice system. Among Stevenson’s many victories, which include securing

Pro Bono Summer Reading: “Invisible Child”

May 22, 2014

Interested in a good read for the upcoming long weekend? Check out last December’s five-part series in The New York Times about a family living in a homeless shelter in Brooklyn, NY. Through the story of 11-year-old Dasani, who is one of 22,000 homeless children in New York, “Invisible Child” shines a harsh light on the alarming increase of homeless youth in recent years and our nation’s problem of vast inequality. It’s one of the most powerful pieces we’ve read this year. We’ve previously discussed how even the most well-meaning and sensitive pro bono volunteers can have a hard time

Pro Bono Summer Reading

May 23, 2013

Looking for a pro bono-themed read for the upcoming long weekend? In summers past, our suggestions have included the best-selling The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, an article on feedback loops, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic To Kill A Mockingbird. This year, we continue to be inspired by Dewey Bozella and the work of our friends at Fredrikson & Byron P.A.*†on behalf of Damon Thibodeaux, and have made selections that focus on pro bono work to exonerate the wrongfully convicted. John Hollway and Ronald Gauthier’s Killing Time: An 18-Year Odyssey From Death Row To Freedom tells the true story of

Summer Reading List: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

May 27, 2011

Looking for a pro bono-themed read for your vacation this weekend? Pack The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot in your beach bag. This best-selling novel tells the story of an impoverished black woman whose cancer cells were used to aid in lucrative medical discoveries after she died in 1950. Meanwhile Lacks’ surviving relatives were left poor, and unable to afford health insurance. Jonathan Chou, an associate and former molecular biologist, and partner, Ethan Skerry, both from Lowenstein Sandler PC*, set up the Henrietta Lacks Foundation and secured tax-exempt status for the author, Rebecca Skloot, in 2010. The foundation aims

Gideon’s Army: Pro Bono and Indigent Defense

July 25, 2013

Want to supplement your pro bono summer reading with an inspirational access to justice themed film? Check out the new documentary Gideon’s Army, which has been showing at film festivals across the country and premiered on HBO earlier this month. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court case Gideon v. Wainwright, which ruled that state courts are required to provide counsel to criminal defendants who cannot afford a lawyer (for more reflections on Gideon, browse the Yale Law Journal’s June issue). This inspirational and compelling documentary focuses on public defenders in the Deep South as they

COVID-19 and Housing Insecurity

May 18, 2021

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, housing insecurity has increased. With over 20 million Americans having lost jobs or experienced pay cuts, access to stable and affordable housing has become increasingly important. Housing insecurity is defined by the Urban Institute as missing or deferring rent or mortgage payments or having little confidence in one’s ability to make rent or mortgage payments. An August 2020 study by the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) reported that nearly one in three renters experienced housing insecurity each week from late April 2020 to July 2020.

Why Does Dewey Bozella “Stand Tall”?

August 24, 2017

Looking for a good read for the last long weekend of the summer? Check out Stand Tall: Fighting for My Life, Inside and Outside the Ring by Dewey Bozella, who was wrongfully imprisoned for 26 years until he was freed with the help of pro bono counsel from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr*† and the Innocence Project. From 1983 until 2009, Bozella was incarcerated in Sing Sing Correctional Facility for the murder of a 92 year-old woman in upstate New York. His memoir, Stand Tall, details his path to freedom through his perseverance, dedication, and resilience. Bozella’s story from