s America’s criminal legal system is rooted in the nation’s history of legalized slavery and racial oppression. Our current system of punishment is still founded on a basic conception of outsider-hood that continues to create and perpetuate racial, ethnic, and class inequality. Criminal legal reform efforts must engage directly with this sordid lineage to unmoor the inequitable impacts and outcomes of our current system of “justice.” As Cornell William Brooks, former president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, wrote: “Communities of color are over policed, over-prosecuted, over-incarcerated and yet underemployed.” The racial disparities throughout our criminal legal system are considerable. For example, one in three Black men are incarcerated in their lifetimes compared to one in 17 white men. When it comes to policing, these disparities are even greater, as evident in the number of Black men and women who are killed without justification by law enforcement officers. A mapping of police violence illustrates that Black Americans are three times more likely to be killed by police officers than white Americans, while nearly twice as likely to be killed as a Latinx person. Black Americans are also about 30% more likely to be unarmed in fatal interactions with police than white Americans.