Alec Karakatsanis (born November 7, 1983) is an American
civil rights lawyer, social justice advocate, co-founder of
Equal Justice Under Law, and founder and Executive Director of
Civil Rights Corps, a Washington D.C. impact litigation nonprofit. Karakatsanis' recent work has targeted the American monetary
bail system.[1] He also opposes
copaganda.[2]
In 2016, Karakatsanis was awarded the Stephen B. Bright Award by
Gideon's Promise[3] and the Trial Lawyer of the Year Award by Public Justice.[4] In explaining their rationale, Public Justice declared Karakatsanis to be "setting the precedent for a new era of criminal justice reform in the age of mass incarceration."[5]
In August 2016, Karakatsanis challenged the use of money bail in
Harris County, Texas, in a federal lawsuit supported by the sheriff of
Houston.[13] Controversy arose when the attorney representing Harris County argued that "some people want to be in jail".[14] A year earlier, in July 2016, Civil Rights Corps (along with ArchCity Defenders, the
St. Louis public defense agency) received a landmark settlement when the city of
Jennings, Missouri agreed to pay $4.7 million to 2,000 people incarcerated in its jail for inability to pay traffic fines and other minor fees.[15]
^
abTaylor, Bryan (March 16, 2017).
"UP Incubator: Alec Karakatsanis". university.pretrial.org. Pretrial Justice Institute. Archived from the original on April 24, 2017.{{
cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (
link)
^"First Amended Class Action Complaint"(PDF). Maranda Lynn Odonnell, Loetha McGruder, Robert Ryan Ford v. Harris County, Texas at al. United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. August 31, 2016. Case No. 16-cv-01414; Document 51-1. Archived from
the original(PDF) on April 12, 2018 – via Squarespace.com.