Sarah Lustbader

Sarah Lustbader, senior legal counsel, was previously senior program associate at the Vera Institute of Justice and a criminal defense attorney at The Bronx Defenders.

@SarahLustbader

Articles by Sarah Lustbader

Louisiana Prosecutors Try To Pull Cases From a Black Judge Who Criticized Discrimination

Sarah Lustbader Oct 29, 2019

Louisiana Prosecutors Try To Disqualify Black Judge Who Called Out Discrimination

Sarah Lustbader

Julián Castro’s Criminal Justice plan: Long On Inspiration, Short On Specifics

Sarah Lustbader Oct 28, 2019

Julián Castro’s Criminal Justice Plan: Long On Inspiration, Short On Specifics

Sarah Lustbader

Should Relapse Be Treated Like A Crime?

Sarah Lustbader Oct 25, 2019

Should Relapse Be Treated As A Crime? Massachusetts considers a bill that says no.

Sarah Lustbader Oct 24, 2019

Trump’s Disastrous Attempt At Restorative Justice

Sarah Lustbader Oct 22, 2019

Atatiana Jefferson’s Death Was A Failure Of Policing

Sarah Lustbader Oct 18, 2019

Atatiana Jefferson’s Death Was A Failure Of Policing

Sarah Lustbader

Court-Packing Is The Tip Of The Iceberg

Sarah Lustbader Oct 16, 2019

Prison Whistleblowers, Too, Are Vulnerable

Sarah Lustbader Oct 11, 2019

Prison Whistleblowers, Too, Are Vulnerable

Sarah Lustbader

A Discriminatory Rule Even Justice Kavanaugh Opposes

Sarah Lustbader Oct 10, 2019

A Discriminatory Rule Even Justice Kavanaugh Opposes

Sarah Lustbader

Republicans Suddenly Care About Hearsay And Procedural Justice

Sarah Lustbader Oct 04, 2019

Empathy And Forgiveness At Amber Guyger’s Trial

Sarah Lustbader Oct 03, 2019

Potential Second Chances For Prisoners In D.C.

Sarah Lustbader Sep 26, 2019

The Officer Who Arrested A 6-Year-Old Was Fired But Don’t Expect Much Change

Sarah Lustbader Sep 24, 2019

Climate movement could radically transform criminal system

Sarah Lustbader Sep 20, 2019

On Homelessness, Trump And Dems Both Look To Police

Sarah Lustbader Sep 19, 2019

The Deeper Questions Raised By Felicity Huffman’s Sentence

Sarah Lustbader Sep 17, 2019

Harris’s Criminal Justice Plan Is More About Kamala Than Justice

Sarah Lustbader Sep 12, 2019

Can A Sheriff Force You To Help Law Enforcement? Not In California.

Sarah Lustbader Sep 10, 2019

Boston judge won’t let DA dismiss cases; standoff ensues

Sarah Lustbader Sep 07, 2019

Can You Fight Mass Incarceration And Dodge Jury Duty?

Sarah Lustbader Sep 05, 2019

What’s Not To Love About The NYPD Slowdown?

Sarah Lustbader Sep 03, 2019

Billionaire Victims’ Rights Advocate Finds Himself at the Defense Table

Sarah Lustbader Aug 27, 2019

ASAP Rocky’s Arrest Prompts Trump to Lecture Sweden On Criminal Justice

Sarah Lustbader Aug 23, 2019

How Warren And Sanders Would Overhaul The Criminal System

Sarah Lustbader Aug 22, 2019

Police Respond To Accountability By Threatening A Slowdown

Sarah Lustbader Aug 20, 2019

Philadelphia’s Progressive D.A. Is Blamed For a Standoff He Helped Defuse

Sarah Lustbader Aug 16, 2019

Jeffrey Epstein, An Ironic Catalyst For Jail Reform

Sarah Lustbader Aug 15, 2019

Putting Their Lives And Livelihoods On The Line To Protest Immigration Policy

Sarah Lustbader Aug 13, 2019

The First Beneficiary of a Sentence Review Unit Walks Free

Sarah Lustbader Aug 08, 2019

Horrific Cases Test Our Commitment To Mercy And Understanding

Sarah Lustbader Aug 06, 2019

What ICE Reveals About Itself When It Detains U.S. Citizens

Sarah Lustbader Aug 01, 2019

The First Step Act freed people. Now prosecutors are trying to lock some of them up again.

Sarah Lustbader Jul 30, 2019

The First Step Act Freed People. Now Prosecutors Are Trying To Lock Some Of Them Up Again.

Sarah Lustbader

The federal government offered four arguments for reinstating the death penalty. They all fail.

Sarah Lustbader Jul 26, 2019

The Government’s Arguments for Restoring the Death Penalty All Fail

Sarah Lustbader

Risk assessment tools are flawed—should we throw them away?

Sarah Lustbader Jul 25, 2019

Risk Assessment Tools Are Flawed—Should We Throw Them Away?

Sarah Lustbader

The allocution will not be televised

Sarah Lustbader Jul 23, 2019

States Are Blocking Courtroom Recording. But Reform Requires Transparency.

Sarah Lustbader

Stevens’s views evolved over time. Scalia called it ‘arrogance,’ but it was the opposite.

Sarah Lustbader Jul 18, 2019

Spotlight: Scalia Called Stevens’s Evolution ‘Arrogance.’ It was the Opposite.

Sarah Lustbader

Blue Bell listeria outbreak killed three people, but only the teenage prankster accused of licking a carton will face charges

Sarah Lustbader Jul 16, 2019

Spotlight: Ice Cream Licking, Corporate Negligence, And What Constitutes A Crime

Sarah Lustbader

Biden’s tough-on-crime past: Were all Dems really like that?

Sarah Lustbader Jul 02, 2019

Spotlight: Biden and the Tough-on-Crime Election Fallacy

Sarah Lustbader

What if Justice Roberts gave criminal defendants do-overs like he did for the Trump administration?

Sarah Lustbader Jun 28, 2019

Spotlight: The Citizenship Question, the Supreme Court, and Who Deserves a Do-Over

Sarah Lustbader

On Curtis Flowers, the Supreme Court got it right—for the wrong reasons

Sarah Lustbader Jun 27, 2019

Spotlight: The Supreme Court on Curtis Flowers—Right for the Wrong Reasons

Sarah Lustbader

Free phone calls from San Francisco and NY jails demonstrate ‘status quo bias’

Sarah Lustbader Jun 25, 2019

Spotlight: Reactions to Free Jail Calls Demonstrate ‘Status Quo Bias’

Sarah Lustbader

Corrupt cops, lazy lawyers, and cowardly politicians: Kevin Cooper’s case exemplifies three and a half decades of systemic failures

Sarah Lustbader Jun 20, 2019

Spotlight: Kevin Cooper’s Case Exemplifies Decades of Systemic Failures

Sarah Lustbader

In Alabama, departing sheriffs destroy property, deplete funds, and (usually) face no consequences

Sarah Lustbader Jun 18, 2019

Spotlight: Departing Alabama Sheriffs Deplete Funds and (Usually) Face No Consequences

Sarah Lustbader

Linda Fairstein is canceled. Is ‘Law & Order’ culture next?

Sarah Lustbader Jun 14, 2019

Spotlight: Linda Fairstein is Canceled. Is ‘Law & Order’ Culture Next?

Sarah Lustbader

Spotlight: De Blasio—The Circumstances of Layleen Polanco’s Death Shouldn’t Be So Perplexing

Sarah Lustbader Jun 13, 2019

Bill de Blasio seems perplexed about circumstances that led to a trans woman’s death at Rikers Island. He shouldn’t be.

Sarah Lustbader

When saving lives is illegal, something is wrong with the law. When humanitarians are prosecuted, something is wrong with law enforcement.

Sarah Lustbader Jun 11, 2019

Spotlight: Prosecuting Lifesavers Exposes Deep Problems With Laws and Their Enforcement

Sarah Lustbader

‘A new wave of prosecutorial transparency’

Sarah Lustbader Jun 07, 2019

Spotlight: ‘A New Wave of Prosecutorial Transparency’

Sarah Lustbader

Spotlight: Incarcerated Women Helped Draft New York Law to Free Domestic Violence Survivors

Sarah Lustbader Jun 06, 2019

A law to help free domestic violence survivors, drafted by incarcerated women

Sarah Lustbader

Spotlight: Neighborhood Crime Apps Stoke Fears, Reinforce Racist Stereotypes, And Don’t Prevent Crime

Sarah Lustbader Jun 04, 2019

Neighborhood crime apps stoke fears, reinforce racist stereotypes, and trick people into performing police surveillance

Sarah Lustbader

Memorial Day shootings prompt calls for more police—but why?

Sarah Lustbader May 30, 2019

Baltimore police union’s tweet tells cops to ‘protect each other’ and reminds them that some children are ‘criminals’

Sarah Lustbader May 28, 2019

‘If you build it, they will come’: How jail beds drive incarceration

Sarah Lustbader May 22, 2019

Prosecutors Become Unlikely Line of Defense Against Abortion Bans

Sarah Lustbader May 21, 2019

Prosecutors become unlikely line of defense against abortion bans

Sarah Lustbader

In domestic violence cases, prosecutors seek a way around the Sixth Amendment

Sarah Lustbader May 17, 2019

U.S. drug companies won’t help execute people, so the DOJ will allow prisons to buy from other countries

Sarah Lustbader May 16, 2019

Harvard professor loses post for defending an unpopular client

Sarah Lustbader May 14, 2019

LAPD retreats from ‘predictive policing,’ for now

Sarah Lustbader May 02, 2019

From ‘civil death’ to ‘civic bonds’: There is no (good) reason prisoners can’t vote

Sarah Lustbader Apr 30, 2019

Joe Biden’s role in mass incarceration was no ‘mistake’: It was politics.

Sarah Lustbader Apr 25, 2019

Joe Biden’s Role in Mass Incarceration Was No ‘Mistake’: It Was Politics

Sarah Lustbader

Good news: NYC prosecutors are keeping track of unreliable cops. Bad news: The list is secret.

Sarah Lustbader Apr 23, 2019

Eradicating bias from jury selection is only half the battle: What if the jury pool is skewed?

Sarah Lustbader Apr 18, 2019

Why do we hide sentences from jurors?

Sarah Lustbader Apr 16, 2019

Julián Castro’s Immigration Proposal Challenges Distinction Between ‘Deserving’ and ‘Undeserving’, a Little

Sarah Lustbader Apr 04, 2019

Representation by Those Affected by the Criminal Legal System Is Increasingly Important

Sarah Lustbader Apr 03, 2019

If you think the war on drugs is over, just look to the most recent drug task force corruption scandal

Sarah Lustbader Apr 02, 2019

Candidates Can Pledge to Appoint Public Defenders to the Bench To Show They Are Serious about Mass Incarceration

Sarah Lustbader Mar 23, 2019

Legal but Unspeakable

Arkansas lawmaker wants to make it a felony to identify makers of its execution drugs.

Sarah Lustbader Mar 07, 2019

Presidential Hopefuls Should Pledge to Roll Back Mass Incarceration Using Clemency

Sarah Lustbader Feb 28, 2019

Amy Klobuchar Will Not Be a Criminal Justice Ally Until She Reckons with Her Past

Sarah Lustbader Feb 14, 2019

Kamala Harris Was a Tough-on-Crime Prosecutor in a Black Lives Matter Era

Sarah Lustbader Jan 22, 2019

New York Can Do More Than Adopt Texas’s Discovery Laws

Sarah Lustbader Jan 18, 2019

Let Them Eat Steak: The Disgraceful Press Coverage of Holiday Meals in Federal Prisons

Sarah Lustbader Jan 08, 2019

Should Public Agents Resist Injustice Within the Justice System?

If Border Patrol agents should refuse to tear gas children at the border, should prosecutors, police, and judges not refuse some of their duties too?

Sarah Lustbader Nov 30, 2018

Blue Wave Aside, There Was a Tide of Criminal Justice Victories

Sarah Lustbader Nov 07, 2018

2018 Election Preview: Initiative 940, Washington State

Sarah Lustbader Nov 06, 2018

Colorado Votes on Abolishing Its Clause Authorizing Slavery

People laughed when Kanye called for abolishing the "trap door" in the 13th Amendment. Now Coloradans are voting on theirs.

Sarah Lustbader Oct 24, 2018

Ohio’s Issue 1 Ballot Initiative Could ‘Deal a Blow’ to Mass Incarceration

Sarah Lustbader Oct 18, 2018

Death Penalty Struck Down by Washington State Supreme Court

Sarah Lustbader Oct 12, 2018

Common Bails Out a Stranger

What it’s like to take part in New York City’s Mass Bailout.

Sarah Lustbader Oct 10, 2018

What Kavanaugh Could Learn About Criminal Justice From Yesterday’s Ordeal

Sarah Lustbader Sep 28, 2018

What Kavanaugh should learn about criminal justice from yesterday’s ordeal

Sarah Lustbader

Kavanaugh debate, on the left and the right, shows inability to see outside the criminal justice system

Sarah Lustbader Sep 26, 2018

Boston DA Nominee Embraces Next Frontier of Criminal Justice Reforms: Declining Cases

Many reform advocates believe that declining to prosecute cases is an effective way for prosecutors to shrink the system and break cycles of incarceration that disproportionately ensnare people of color.

Sarah Lustbader Sep 14, 2018