First Hand History

"It's kind of like being someone who survived cancer or a major health issue. You realize that there are no guarantees that you're going to live a full life, [so] don't leave any regrets on the table. "

"We talked about being in the army, but we weren't prepared. No one's prepared for that."

"One of the reasons he tried never to do criminal cases was because all of the clients lied."

"We get very moving letters from the grandparents of whoever the caretaker is for the child--how the child might go to bed with the CD, or the CD is played everywhere they go, and how happy it makes them."

"You really have to be committed to keeping students in school, no matter what, to prevent them from coming into contact with the criminal justice system."

"The only unfairness is not the system. It is the people with the system. Because humans are humans, and they are subject to prejudices and human error."

". . . People, no matter who they are or where they're from or what they look like or what they do . . . or just how they live their lives, should have equal access to social institutions should be treated equally by the law. "

"Over there and over here: big difference. So, over there, they understand that they need God. Here, we're losing that, little by little."

"So there's a certain feeling like, you can actually make a difference. I don't know how much that actually happens, but that's one thing I think that drives a lot of my colleagues and myself."

"I realized I liked to be the person who stood up for someone."

"Satisfactory, that is an interesting term."

"I was living in the projects from when I was one to thirteen, so I seen everything in the eighties. It was a lot of drug-selling, a lot of drug use."

"So you'll hear people say: 'Well, why don't they just get in line?' There's no line for these people to get in to."

"There is racism in our country and that permeates through the court system. I don't believe that the courts are intending to discriminate against racial minorities, but I believe that racial minorities that have to stay in jail longer might not be able to afford resources that help them in their defense."

"You've got a lot of wealthy, educated people who may not relate, or understand, people who have struggle..."