Community organizer Raj Jayadev wants to transform the US court system through "participatory defense" -- a growing movement that empowers families and community members to impact their loved ones' court cases. He shares the remarkable results of their work -- including more than 4,000 years of "time saved" from incarceration -- and shows how th...

Many companies have made strides when it comes to prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), but one group remains largely left out: people who have been involved in the criminal justice system. Social impact investor Nyra Jordan introduces us to "fair chance hiring" -- the practice of hiring people with criminal justice records -- and...

For a crime he committed in his early twenties, the courts sentenced Marlon Peterson to 10 years in prison -- and, as he says, a lifetime of irrelevance. While behind bars, Peterson found redemption through a penpal mentorship program with students from Brooklyn. In this brave talk, he reminds us why we should invest in the humanity of those peo...

Here's a shocking statistic: 50 to 80 percent of people in the criminal justice system in the US have had a traumatic brain injury. In the general public, that number is less than five percent. Neuropsychologist Kim Gorgens shares her research into the connection between brain trauma and the behaviors that keep people in the revolving door of cr...

In an engaging, insightful conversation, criminal justice reformer Nick Turner breaks down the ways the US criminal legal system perpetuates centuries-old racial and economic inequality. He joins TED current affairs curator Whitney Pennington Rodgers to outline why the best way to actually deliver justice and safety is to shrink the system and r...

Predictive algorithms may help us shop or discover new movies, but do they belong in the courthouse? Technology and policy expert Hany Farid reverse engineers the inherent dangers and potential biases of the recommendations engines built to make key decisions in the criminal justice system.

A few weeks before his release from prison, Jarrell Daniels took a class where incarcerated men learned alongside prosecutors. By simply sitting together and talking, they uncovered surprising truths about the criminal justice system and ideas for how real change happens. Now a scholar and activist, Daniels reflects on how collaborative educatio...

When you report an emergency in the US, police, firefighters or paramedics answer the call. What if mental health professionals responded, too? Colorado State Representative Leslie Herod shares a straightforward and research-backed approach that brings heart and humanity to criminal justice rather than unnecessary fines and arrests -- and keeps ...

Our brains create categories to make sense of the world, recognize patterns and make quick decisions. But this ability to categorize also exacts a heavy toll in the form of unconscious bias. In this powerful talk, psychologist Jennifer L. Eberhardt explores how our biases unfairly target Black people at all levels of society -- from schools and ...

When she became the attorney general of New Jersey in 2007, Anne Milgram quickly discovered a few startling facts: not only did her team not really know who they were putting in jail, but they had no way of understanding if their decisions were actually making the public safer. And so began her ongoing, inspirational quest to bring data analytic...

A phone call to a US prison or jail can cost up to a dollar per minute -- a rate that forces one in three families with incarcerated loved ones into debt. In this searing talk about mass incarceration, criminal justice advocate and TED Fellow Bianca Tylek exposes the predatory nature of the billion-dollar prison telecom industry and presents str...

For the nearly 20 million Americans with a felony record, punishment doesn't end after their prison sentence. Sociologist Reuben Jonathan Miller sheds light on the aftershocks of mass incarceration through the stories of people who've lived it, left it and still have to grapple with punishing policies after their release. A challenge to rethink ...

John Legend is on a mission to transform America's criminal justice system. Through his Free America campaign, he's encouraging rehabilitation and healing in our prisons, jails and detention centers -- and giving hope to those who want to create a better life after serving their time. With a spoken-word prelude from James Cavitt, an inmate at Sa...

An artwork's color or composition can pull you in -- and put you on the path to having important and difficult conversations, says artist Titus Kaphar. In this stunning talk, he reflects on his artistic evolution and takes us on a tour of his career -- from "The Jerome Project," which draws on religious icons to examine the US criminal justice s...

In halls of justice around the world, how can we ensure everyone is treated with dignity and respect? A pioneering judge in New Jersey, Victoria Pratt shares her principles of "procedural justice" -- four simple, thoughtful steps that redefined the everyday business of her courtroom in Newark, changing lives along the way. "When the court behave...

Why has there been so little mention of saving Black lives from the climate emergency? For too long, racial justice efforts have been distinguished from climate justice work, says David Lammy, Member of Parliament for Tottenham, England. In a stirring talk about building a new movement to care for the planet, Lammy calls for inclusion and suppor...

Human rights protector Rabiaa El Garani shares the challenging, heartbreaking story of sexual violence committed against Yazidi women and girls in Iraq by ISIS -- and her work seeking justice for the survivors. "These victims have been through unimaginable pain. But with a little help, they show how resilient they are," she says. "It is an honor...

Deanna Van Buren designs restorative justice centers that, instead of taking the punitive approach used by a system focused on mass incarceration, treat crime as a breach of relationships and justice as a process where all stakeholders come together to repair that breach. With help and ideas from incarcerated men and women, Van Buren is creating...

Ryan Lobo has traveled the world, taking photographs that tell stories of unusual human lives. In this haunting talk, he reframes controversial subjects with empathy, so that we see the pain of a Liberian war criminal, the quiet strength of UN women peacekeepers and the perseverance of Delhi's underappreciated firefighters.

To achieve lasting change sometimes requires the hard, even radical, choice of partnering with people you'd least expect. Justice reform advocate Nisha Anand shares her story of working with her ideological opposite to make history and save lives -- and urges us all to widen our circles in order to make progress with purpose.

Dan Reisel studies the biology of change, including our ability to rewire our own brains. And he asks a big question: Instead of warehousing these criminals, shouldn't we be using what we know about the brain to help them rehabilitate? Put another way: If the brain can grow new neural pathways after an injury ... could we help the brain re-grow ...

Computational geneticist Yaniv Erlich helped build the world's largest family tree -- comprising 13 million people and going back more than 500 years. He shares fascinating patterns that emerged from the work -- about our love lives, our health, even decades-old criminal cases -- and shows how crowdsourced genealogy databases can shed light not ...

"It is time for a gender reckoning, beginning with men authentically confronting our internal selves and each other," says essayist and intersectional justice advocate Jimmie Briggs. In this call to action for gender equity, he unpacks how traditional notions of masculinity harm society and offers three ways men can help promote personal safety,...

What's the antidote to rising nationalism, polarization and hate? In this inspiring, poetic talk, Valarie Kaur asks us to reclaim love as a revolutionary act. As she journeys from the birthing room to tragic sites of bloodshed, Kaur shows us how the choice to love can be a force for justice.

Pardons, commutations and bankruptcy laws are all tools of forgiveness within the US legal system. Are we using them frequently enough, and with fairness? Law professor Martha Minow outlines how these merciful measures can reinforce racial and economic inequality -- and makes the case for creating a system of restorative justice that focuses on ...

Since the 1800s, a handful of oligarchs had controlled nearly all of El Salvador's land, forcing laborers to work for almost nothing. But in 1980, farmers and urban workers formed guerrilla groups to overthrow the US-backed dictatorship. These revolutionaries were attacked from every direction, but a group of rebels refused to be silenced. Diana...

What qualifies someone to become a judge? The answer is surprisingly vague and even taboo to discuss. Lawyer Jessica Kerr sifts through the murky, mysterious process that sits at the center of the Commonwealth judicial system in countries like Australia -- and makes the case for "judge school," a legal education better fit to bring justice, legi...

To make accountability the norm after gender violence in the United States, we need to change tactics, says victims' rights attorney and TED Fellow Laura L. Dunn. Instead of going institution by institution, fighting for reform, we need to go to the Constitution and finally pass the Equal Rights Amendment, which would require states to address g...

In an engaging and personal talk -- with cameo appearances from his grandmother and Rosa Parks -- human rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson shares some hard truths about America's justice system, starting with a massive imbalance along racial lines: a third of the country's black male population has been incarcerated at some point in their lives. Thes...

The freedom journey doesn't end when someone is released from prison. In many ways, it begins. Attorney and entrepreneur Brittany K. Barnett fights to free people from prison and champions restoring and nurturing the creative ingenuity of justice-impacted people. She shares stories of the innovation languishing in America's prisons -- and a visi...