Bending the Bars: The Case for Second Chances in American Justice

By Jessica S. Henry

What justice requires when people change but their sentences stay the same.

America loves a second chance story. Yet people convicted of serious crimes are seldom given one. Years after taking responsibility and working to repair harm, many remain behind bars even though their continued incarceration does little to keep us safer and carries tremendous human and financial costs.

In Bending the Bars, Jessica S. Henry makes the case against endless punishment that leaves no room for redemption. Grounding her analysis of law and policy in the lived experiences of people directly affected by extreme sentences, Henry shows how accountability, public safety, and second chances can coexist within a framework that recognizes human dignity and the capacity for change.

Urgent and compelling, this book challenges us to rethink who deserves a second chance, who gets to decide, and what justice demands beyond defining a person by the worst thing they have ever done.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520410386
• ISBN13: 9780520410381
• Release Date: February 2027
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 272 Pages