The Price of Mercy: Unfair Trials, a Violent System, and a Public Defender's Search for Justice in America

by Emily Galvin Almanza

A former public defender takes us behind the closed doors of America's criminal courts, revealing how the institutions that claim to protect us are doing the exact opposite—and offering a blueprint for finally fixing it.

“Galvin-Almanza takes readers inside the system with crystalline insight, heart, and writerly skill. Anyone who cares about justice should read this urgently-needed book.”—Jane Mayer, author of Dark Money

As Americans, we are told a rose-tinted story about our criminal courts—that these are the hallowed halls of justice, that the purpose of our legal process is to find the truth, and that those who enforce the law are both equitable and heroic. But what if the reality is being purposefully obscured to hide something rotten at the system’s core?

In The Price of Mercy, attorney and former public defender Emily Galvin Almanza weaves hard data and unforgettable stories, dark humor and compelling evidence to tell us the truth about what’s really going on behind the closed doors of America’s criminal courts. She shows us how jails actually increase future crime, the dirty tricks police use to make millions in overtime pay, how a man could spend decades in prison because scientists mistook dog hair for his own, the perverse incentives that push prosecutors to seek convictions even when they themselves don’t want to, and how judges may decide cases differently after lunch.

We’ll learn what’s working, how public defenders can improve public health and even economic mobility, and how planting more trees can reduce a neighborhood’s murder rates. But a lone defender winning a case won’t change the system. Galvin Almanza argues that we need an engaged public to confront the stark reality of our crime-generating, poverty-entrenching, health-destroying legal apparatus and rebuild it into something that can save our collective present and prevent our future from being torn apart.

Provocative and eye-opening, The Price of Mercy lifts the curtain on the way our laws really operate and presents a path forward for true transformation of the American criminal court system. Justice, and the law itself, is not some static thing. It is something enacted together, decision by decision, in acts of inhumanity or mercy.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Law, History, Audiobook, Social Justice, Crime

Audible Audio

Published February 17, 2026

About the author

Emily Galvin Almanza is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Partners for Justice, a nonprofit creating a new collaborative model designed to empower public defenders nationwide. Prior to co-founding PFJ, Emily fought for clients inside the LA County Public Defender, Santa Clara County Public Defender, Bronx Defenders, and the Stanford Three Strikes Project. She believes that everyone is entitled not just to equal justice, but to equal mercy.

Emily is a graduate of Harvard University and Stanford Law School, where she earned the Deborah Rhode Prize for her work in the public interest. After her first year as a public defender, she clerked for the Honorable Thelton Henderson of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. She then returned to the Stanford Three Strikes Project, where she was one of the first attorneys bringing post-reform petitions for relief on behalf of individuals sentenced to life in prison under California's Three Strikes law. In 2017, Emily was honored as one of the American Bar Association's Top 40 Young Lawyers. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Teen Vogue, and TIME, and her most recent book, The Price of Mercy, was published by Crown in February of 2026. She is also looking forward to bringing ideas about justice, mercy, due process, and the presumption of innocence to a new audience, with middle-grade novel, Andromeda Diaz and the Reasonable Doubt, to be published by Ten Speed Press, part of the Crown Publishing Group, in 2026.

Reviews

[Rachel Pollock · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fantastic. It has the potential to change our justice system, our police system, our carceral system. When I was in college, the school picked a book for the students to read over the summer and discuss once school was in session in the fall, and this would be an excellent selection for such a thing if colleges still do that.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very insightful and in-depth account of how the US judicial system is flawed. While not a very upbeat topic, the author goes into a lot of ways that it could improve, and how non-for-profits are trying to help. You can tell just by the author's impassioned voice while narrating this book just how much she cares about the people that have been used and abused by the system, and how adamant she is to help.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have watched Emily Galvin Almanza speak many times throughout these last few years, more often recently during troubled times in the USA, and thus very much anticipated her new book, The Price of Mercy - Unfair Trials, A Violent System, and a Public Defender’s Search for Justice in America.

From the very first paragraph I had tears in my eyes, imagining a 16 year old Emily’s very first appearance in front of a judge, one whom thankfully saw all of her intelligence, humanity and raw potential. Allowing her to carry on her way, and perhaps in that one small but important act of kindness, helping inspire the brilliant and important lawyer, commentator and author she is today.

Obviously impacted and empowered by this early act of mercy, and applying her strong intellect with an innate sense of empathy and expression of justice, this book is a wonderful and accessible account of Emily’s extraordinary career, experiences and perspectives as a public defender. Powerfully backed by research and specific cases and clients, Emily recounts learnings and insight from many years on the front lines, in court and giving a strong “side-eye” to an often flawed justice system.

Because I also listened to the author reading the audio version of her book, the very personal and often hysterically funny vocal expressions of a passionate and dedicated lawyer recounting the stories was quite endearing.

Reminiscent of one extraordinary professor I remember from law school a lifetime ago, Emily is at once an inspirational lawyer, a well humoured and easily readable author, a great and relatable storyteller, and I expect a rather decent human being. My professor may be analogous to her Judge Harris.

The Price of Mercy will be equally the most important and enjoyable book I’ve read in a long time. A return to empathy, morality and intellect being so desperately needed in 2026, Emily’s book is all the human nourishment and inspiration that I knew it would be. I would highly recommend for any law student, lawyer, leader, anyone with an interest in decency and justice, and anyone struggling to believe that justice and empathy still exist.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

[audiobook] this book is exceptional. I would make this mandatory reading for all American citizens if I could. I kept pausing and rewinding to take (many pages of) notes - mindblowing statistics, cases I want to go back and read, the names of organizations that are doing important and impressive work, etc.

Also the best author / narrator I can remember hearing.

If I had one complaint it’s that I wish she would’ve acknowledged and addressed some of the stronger arguments against her positions. It would’ve been powerful to see some balance in that way. And there were one or two times that I don’t think she granted people she disagrees with the same understanding that she’s requesting for her clients.

- “People assume that most people who get arrested are guilty when really most people who get arrested are poor and may or may not be guilty.”

- About 1 in 20 incarcerated people are in solitary. Almost 60% have been there for >15 days, meeting the intl definition of torture. Most people stay in solitary for 1-3mo. In Texas, HALF of ppl in solitary confinement stay there for 3yrs or more.

- White kids, even when arrested, are so much less likely to be booked and charged and so much more likely to be let go with a warning, that the proportion of black children neither booked nor cited on their *first* arrest is still less than that of white children on their FOURTH arrest.

- More than 95% of people in prison and jail will come home. The question isn’t whether someone will return to society; the only question is what condition they’ll be in when they return.

[Madison ✨ (mad.lyreading) · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a criminal defense attorney myself, I knew a large portion of the material in this book. However, where Emily Galvin Almanza shines is in her ability to convey these concepts to non-legal folk. Not only is she able to explain why each aspect of the system is wrong and harmful without sounding like a bleeding-heart liberal, she is able to give concrete ideas on how we can change the system to correct these harms. The book is extremely well laid out, going essentially from arrest to sentencing, showing that the system is pretty much broken in every facet. Her examinations of the system are extremely humanizing, and I think this book can change a lot of minds and a lot of hearts. I can only hope that some of the changes she suggests can be made in the future.

(note to add that the system is not broken but working as intended and should be dismantled, but alas, we live in a society)

Thank you to Crown Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Al Menaster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Emily Galvin Almanza, who is my friend, has written the definitive nonfiction book on the criminal justice system. She shows that our opinions on that system are based on narratives from personal experiences and media news reports, but these narratives are not data. She exhaustively documents the data that shows that many of these narratives are just not true. This is beautifully written, with stories but mostly data, that everyone should read to be informed about the criminal justice system. This is a riveting, captivating, compelling read.

[Jen Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very well done. As an administrative law judge, I found certain aspects particularly on point and interesting. Obviously, like anything written from a different prospective, there were a handful of things that I did not agree with specifically- not to say those points aren’t valid. I really appreciated the fact that the author provided ideas on how to change the topics that were commented could be better.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an accessible look at the dysfunction of the U.S. criminal justice system. I was fortunate to hear Emily Galvin Almanza speak in Seattle a few weeks ago, and I really appreciate her insights and proposed solutions.

[Maureen Tully · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Price of Mercy is a powerful and eye-opening account of the American justice system, told through the deeply informed perspective of public defender Emily Galvin Almanza. Rather than offering abstract criticism, Almanza breaks down the system piece by piece, revealing how structural injustices impact real people every day.
What makes this book especially compelling is its balance between honesty and hope. Almanza not only exposes the flaws embedded in the system, but also provides concrete examples of reforms already in motion—proof that change is not only necessary, but possible. Her storytelling is both accessible and urgent, making complex legal issues understandable without losing their gravity.
This is not just a book to read—it’s a book to reckon with. It challenges readers to confront uncomfortable truths and reconsider what justice should look like in a fair society. If more people engaged with the ideas presented here, we could begin to imagine—and build—a system rooted in fairness, accountability, and humanity.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fantastic. Almanza’s experience really shines through in this well written and researched book. I loved that the second part of the book was ‘Solutions’ because social justice can be quite depressing and leave one feeling hopeless.
After this book, listen to season three of Serial podcast. It’s an example of the capriciousness and cruelty of our justice/court system.

Few random highlights:
‘Informed voters are much harder to scare and tend to make better decisions than voters who know only what they’ve seen or heard on the numerous true crime horror show shows and podcast stalking our airwaves.’

‘The United States spends $182 billion to incarcerate about 2 million people each year, but research tells us that incarceration has essentially no long-term effect on violence. A 2021 analysis of more than 100 studies showed that putting people into the custody of the prison system doesn’t lower long-term reoffending overall and may actually increase it.’

‘These days 70% of people in jails are being held pretrial not having been convicted of any crime….In America, most people have about as much freedom as they can buy.’

[Giselle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really insightful perspective from a public defender on the justice system and how unjust the system is. Everyone in the United States should read this in order to understand how the justice system, including the police and carceral systems, are systematically racist, classist, harmful to public health and actually not making our society safer. Emily Galvin Almanza doesn’t stop there, she also goes on to give detailed examples of what is actively being done to change the system as well as what all of us can do to push forward these much needed reforms. I truly hope people will read this and see how much better our society could be if we actually implemented these changes.

I highlighted an insane amount of this book but just felt like sharing this one:
“Anyone who has ever been told that every police department might have "a few bad apples" should remember that the original saying is ‘a few bad apples ruin the bunch.’ “

[Cassie C · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I think many people have been disabused of the notion that the justice system is fully functional, especially people of color, I appreciate how Almanza clearly lays out all the ways in which it is broken. With statistics and personal stories from those who have gone through different aspects of the system, she shows just how far we are from anything resembling justice for so many people. But what I especially appreciate is how she spends the last section of the book outlining reasonable and achievable ways in which we can work to make things better. I highly recommend this for anyone wishing to get a full picture of the system from someone who works within it every day.

[Darnell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have too much exposure to "law and order" types recently, so I read this as a counterbalance. I think this book's arguments are certainly true in some respects, and of course systems can have perverse incentives and other flaws, but this book is mostly preaching to the choir. Certainly correct in some respects, it just isn't likely to convince anyone.

The author begins with a certain (open-minded and compassionate) stance and doesn't really consider readers who might disagree with her. This is fine as an attitude, but there are some notable omissions, such as a near-constant unsupported assumption that base rates between populations must be equal. It also presents a very stark dichotomy between "Uptown" and "Downtown" communities, which runs against the statistics I've seen about the attitudes of disadvantaged communities toward police.

[Krystal Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This should be required reading for anyone who wants to offer an opinion on our justice system.

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book rocks

[Jan Simone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every citizen should read this book. You will be shocked.

[Jorgen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Galvin Almanza tackles major issues and systemic brokenness within our criminal "justice" system with a rich blend of research, experience, depth, tenacity, clarity, and hope.

[Dana Sweeney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an encompassing, accessible book for understanding how twisted, violent, and ineffective the criminal legal system is in the United States. It belongs on the same bookshelf as The New Jim Crow and Just Mercy, which is to say, it is a perspective-altering book with the potential to usher in a realignment. Galvin Almanza is a compelling guide with a strong voice & deep experience in public defense. Writing for a broad layman audience, she makes it impossible not to see clearly the horrific, interlocking, all too often obscured injustices at the core of the “criminal justice system.”

Must-read — especially for folks who vaguely know that mass incarceration and police are bad, but maybe haven’t had much exposure to the nuts and bolts of low-level policing and prosecution!

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leftist Language Will Annoy Some Readers. Read This Anyway. Straight up, Galvin Almanza is absolutely a product of her time - in this case, "her time" being 2010s Harvard and Stanford and then abolitionist activism. So the words she chooses - "latinx", apologizing for being white, etc - are going to annoy at least some readers.

From my view (see postscript for a brief bio relevant to this discussion)... this book is right up there among the ones those new to the field should consider. Those in and around criminal justice will likely know most everything Galvin Almanza presents here - or at bare minimum have largely similar stories of people they did know more directly. Her writing style is engaging - far from the academic speak one might expect from a Stanford Law lecturer and much closer to the dynamism one would expect from a tenacious advocate of the accused during a trial. While this is far from a John Grisham or Randy Singer courtroom drama, Galvin Almanza's overall style bends more in that direction than a desert dry academic treatise.

One weakness here was her framing of the "racist" origins of policing, but again, that's the culture Galvin Almanza comes from. It is unclear at this time if she's ever even heard of Radley Balko's excellent history of policing The Rise Of The Warrior Cop, released between The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander (who blurbed this book, in case you, the reader of my review, missed that) and the 2013 execution of Michael Brown. Balko has a much more even handed look at the rise of policing in the American tradition, tracing it back even beyond the first "Shire Reefs" in feudal England and up through 2010 or so (with a 2020s update I've yet to go back and read). Even here, however, Galvin Almanza's incorrect history of policing comes across more as a cultural/ worldview thing than an attempt to mislead the reader - she appears to genuinely not know the actual history at hand and genuinely (and uncritically) believes the constant leftist refrain.

That particular weakness aside, however, this is a particularly well documented book, clocking in at about 28% documentation on even the Advance Review Copy edition of the text I've had for several weeks before finally reading roughly a month before release. It is quite clear that on most of her points, Galvin Almanza both knows exactly what she's arguing and is more than willing to show you her work - which is always appreciated (and, yes, frankly expected) in any nonfiction work.

Ultimately Galvin Almanza's proposals - because all books of this type must end with proposals in nearly as ironclad a genre rule as RWA/ RNA types try to insist that any romance novel end in a happily ever after - all come down to variations on "more funding" and for the most part are things most that are familiar with the field have already heard of before, but Galvin Almanza does put at least enough of her own specific vision in here that the text is still worth reading to see exactly what her own brand of reasoning comes out as.

Overall this was a strong book of its type, just not an overly novel one other than in Galvin Almanza's own particular experiences.

Very much recommended.

Brief bio of me: Hi, I'm Jeff, and I used to work for a District Attorney for a bit as their office tech guy. Even got sworn in as a witness in one particular trial, in addition to helping my bosses with an "everyman" look at the case he had in a couple of cases. Even then, I was *also* a Libertarian Party official and an anti-police-brutality activist working with an org that has long went by the wayside (at least relative to what it was) and which particularly after Michael Brown's execution in 2013 was rarely heard from again as more prominent orgs rose up. I even, at some of the very times Galvin Almanza was being recognized as one of the most promising young lawyers in America, had a database that virtually no one knew of, but which made me *the* world's leading expert in mass shooting, school shooting, and killed by police events - at least in terms of the data I had and was actively both collecting and analyzing.

Which is a particularly long winded way of saying that I've been around the block more than a few times as it relates to the subject of this book. Frequently around it, rarely directly in it, but very much close enough to know much of what was happening... from most every side.

[Tim Schillinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pros
>>Easy to follow the themes, stories, and experiences of public defenders and the justice system. It's well written, well organized, and you can feel the humanity in both the author and the people she writes about.
>>Exposes the inherent injustices baked into the system, from the biases of judges and cops to how precedent grinds people into criminality. Honestly disturbing in the best way a book like this can be, and makes a convincing case that serious reform (if not a complete overhaul) is long overdue.
>>Does a careful examination of how culture shapes court policies and perceptions, and ultimately how justice gets doled out and why the public over-indexes on using police force as the answer to everything.

Cons
While the author outlines some reform recommendations, she never seriously considers that the system may be running exactly as intended, at least from a class conflict point of view. That lens would not only explain why the system works the way it does, but also why incremental reform without a hard reset is likely futile. The laws are created by the rich, for the rich, and against anyone outside their class. Without interrogating the justice system through that framework, the examination feels incomplete and a little naive. Her recommendations are civil and well-intentioned, but they're aimed at fixing a machine that was never designed to do what she thinks it was.

Summary
This book is a compelling and humane account of what the American justice system actually looks like from the inside, as told through the eyes of the public defenders who wade through it every day. The writing is strong, the stories are affecting, and the cultural analysis of how we ended up over-policed and under-just is genuinely illuminating. Where it falls short is in its theory of change. The author sees a broken system; a more structural reading would suggest a system working exactly as its architects intended, as a mechanism of class control dressed up in the language of justice. Without that framework, the reform proposals feel like good-faith suggestions delivered to an institution with no interest in receiving them. Essential reading for understanding the human cost of the system as it exists; less satisfying for anyone trying to understand why it exists this way and what it would actually take to change it.

[Kelli Matthews | SighingOurPleasure · Rating 5 out of 5]

My son has wanted to be a public defender or civil rights attorney since his freshman year of high school when they read Just Mercy. Now he's in college and still pursuing that goal. So when I saw The Price of Mercy, I knew this was going to end up in his hands eventually. But first, I needed to read it myself—social justice has always been something I'm passionate about.

Emily Galvan Almanza didn't just write a book. She wrote a blueprint. The research is top-tier, the case stories are gut-wrenching, and she makes you understand exactly why her nonprofit, Partners for Justice, exists. But what really got me was the second half—the solutions. Not just "here's what's broken" (though trust me, she lays that out with receipts), but "here's how we fix it."

My key takeaway: We need to make our justice system human-scaled. Focused on our shared humanity and committed to people's well-being.

That's it. That's the whole point. And somehow it feels both incredibly simple and absolutely daunting.

Am I inspired? Yes. Do I feel a bit overwhelmed by how much needs to change? Also yes. But I'm committed to doing my part, whatever that looks like.

This one's going straight to my son, along with a note that says "this is the work." And if you've got someone in your life who's passionate about justice reform—or if YOU are—grab this one.

🔗 partnersforjustice.org

[Thelonious · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well written and argued overview of the many urgent problems with our criminal legal system. Not much here that was wholly new to me, but it’s a great distillation of data and scholarship showing all that is wrong and unjust about policing, prosecution, and criminal court adjudication in America today.

Based on the title I was expecting a lot more insight into the author’s own experiences as a PD than the book ultimately contained.

The reforms proposed in the later chapters are good and necessary, but obvious. The urgent work of our moment is not to identify how to change the system (plenty has been written on that) but to build the political will to do so, a much harder task.

I am not sure who is the best audience for this book. As a law student who’s been working in or about the system for a few years, a lot of it felt familiar and elementary. Yet parts are pretty in the weeds and may lose a total layperson’s attention/understanding. In any case, this is a helpful work!

(Listened to the audiobook.)

[Hisham · Rating 4 out of 5]

A veteran public defender goes over the current flaws in the American Criminal Justice System and provides a lot of solutions.

This is a critique that goes beyond the quality of representation that defendants receive to include how crimes are investigated, charged, tried, sentenced, and treatment during and after incarceration.

One of the most eye-opening sections concerned the critique of forensic science which makes the argument that much of its area of analysis (fingerprints, blood splatters, bite marks, etc) isn't very scientific, but still is allowed in most courts.

Other standouts include the extent that improper conduct by law enforcement is shielded by a combination of Qualified Immunity, Police Unions, and Prosecutors that suspiciously have low success rates with Grand Juries.

Among the numerous reforms there is increasing compensation for jurors, eliminating cash bail, and expanding file discovery.

There is much to review and contemplate in this book and it is a must read for anyone interested in criminal justice reform.

[Camille]

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[Cari · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really opened my eyes to the true damage the justice system is doing to all involved. People arrested and/or jailed or imprisoned are experiencing the worst harm, through delaying of trials, wrongful or unnecessary charging, and jail time incurred for the most petty of crimes. But even lawyers (especially public defenders), police, judges, and jurors are experiencing the inefficiency and tumult of the system. Almanza is a public defender and works to make change in the system, and her suggestions for change are eye-opening.

[Sophia D · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this book in a Goodreads giveaway. I quite enjoyed it even though it took me a while to read. The reason it took me a while to read them to be fair is that I only read it at times when I could absorb the information effectively. Nothing to do with the information or how it was written. This book definitely made me think and exposed me to problems with the American Justice system that I knew about and expanded upon them. It also taught me about problems. I have no idea about. The writing is good and I think it is worth reading.

[Angel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book a very true telling story of the failures of our criminal justice system. Many episodes were reminiscent of my experiences working with justice-impacted youth whose often only crime was over policed neighborhoods. Thank you for this book Emily, but more for the incredible work of Partners for Justice. My only critique would be not sharing more about the organizations incredible impact.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bleak? Yes. Important? Unequivocally. Anyone who has ever been involved with the US criminal justice system in any capacity has been hit with at least a few of the many harsh realities revealed in this text. The system may have been built for the people, but it does not work for the people. Galvin Almanza’s vision for the future of the criminal justice system provides a solid, albeit long overdue, foundation for reform.

[Bea · Rating 5 out of 5]

For many years, Americans' rights to legal representation and a fair trial were not enforced, and people were imprisoned unjustly. Today, even though convicted people are assigned public defenders, fair representation and trials remain elusive. What this book really drives home is how our country's punishment-focused "justice" often doesn't "solve" crime at all - it *increases* it by setting people up for failure and exposing them to violence, poverty, and health issues.

[Joann · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is written by someone who has walked the walked and talked the talk and has done a fine job of presenting the issues involved. Perhaps it was just me but after several chapters my interest waned and I had to struggle to the end.