On the Same Page gives the UC Berkeley campus community something to talk about. Every faculty member and every new freshman and transfer student receives the same book (or other item) during the summer; the entire campus community is invited to participate in a series of public events and activities in the Fall. Students can also enroll in courses relating to the theme, including Freshman Seminars. Visit the On the Same Page website for more about the program, an archive of programs since 2007, and of course, this year's special events.
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, is this year's On the Same Page selection. Author Bryan Stevenson writes movingly of his work with the Equal Justice Initiative, a non-profit organization he founded that litigates "on behalf of condemned prisoners, juvenile offenders, people wrongly convicted or charged with violent crimes, poor people denied effective representation, and others whose trials are marked by racial bias or prosecutorial misconduct." Stevenson paints vivid portraits of dozens of prisoners whose real crimes were their race and poverty.
Trends in U.S. Corrections U.S. State and Federal Prison Populations, 1925-2014 (Fact sheet) (The Sentencing Project)
Drug Testing and Crime-Related Restrictions in TANF, SNAP, and Housing Assistance (November 18, 2015) Congressional Research Service
Felony Disefranchisement (The Sentencing Project)
"The Innocence List" (Death Penalty Information Center)
