In Their Names: The Untold Story of Victims’ Rights, Mass Incarceration, and the Future of Public Safety

Lenore Anderson has built her career on reforming criminal justice, both in her previous position as chief of policy in the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office and in her current role as co-founder and president of Alliance for Safety and Justice (ASJ). In her debut book, In Their Names: The Untold Story of Victims’ Rights, Mass Incarceration, and the Future of Public Safety, Anderson examines how the United States’ focus on victims’ rights often perpetuates mass incarceration. She argues that bureaucrats justify increased incarceration under the guise of public safety, rather than creating solutions to better serve crime victims.

“The fact that decades of increased investments in criminal justice have been justified in service of protecting victims of crime, when most crime victims haven’t seen the justice system offer any real protection or help, is perhaps the most sinister aspect and irony of mass incarceration,” Anderson writes in the introduction. Booklist called In Their Names a “well-researched, results-driven, and readable work” that “challenges ideas of victimhood and offers a way forward from mass incarceration to true public safety.”

Anderson is also the founder of Californians for Safety and Justice, the statewide flagship of ASJ. In 2014, she chaired and co-authored a California ballot initiative to reduce incarceration and reallocate prison spending to programs addressing mental health, drug treatment, education, and victim services.

Lenore Anderson will be joined on stage with Shakyra Diaz, Chief of Federal Advocacy at ASJ to discuss how state leaders and advocates can create effective public safety solutions that replace over-incarceration.