Judge Victoria Pratt’s “The Power of Dignity”
Slate News
Slate Podcasts
4.5 • 6K Ratings
🗓️ 13 August 2022
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The quality of dignity is not strained. Judge Victoria Pratt presided for years over Municipal Court in Newark, New Jersey. Her experiences form the foundation of her book, The Power of Dignity: How Transforming Justice Can Heal Our Communities. In the third of Amicus’ summer season of big-picture conversations, Dahlia Lithwick and Judge Pratt explore what everyone, up to and including Supreme Court Justices, can learn from procedural justice, also known as procedural fairness. You can watch Judge Pratt’s viral Ted Talk here.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Dignity is important in the law and the justice system because one of the things that the justice system does is that it robs people of their dignity. |
| 0:15.6 | We acknowledge that dignity is important because one of the greatest things that we do is diminish it when people come through our system. |
| 0:29.6 | Hi, and welcome back to Amicus. This is Slate's podcast about the courts and the law and justice with a capital |
| 0:39.3 | J. And we are into our summer series where we look at some big books, movies, podcasts, |
| 0:47.1 | whatever that made a huge difference to us. And this week, we are talking to Judge Victoria |
| 0:52.8 | Pratt. Her new book, The Power of Dignity, was published this past May by Seale Press. |
| 1:00.0 | As Chief Judge in Newark Municipal Court in Newark, New Jersey, she spent years thinking about how justice could actually be delivered to defendants and how, as judges, |
| 1:14.1 | there is a part to play in building back trust in the justice system. |
| 1:18.6 | When I read her book this past winter and disclosure, I did blurb it, |
| 1:23.7 | I was really struck by the ways in which Judge Pratt thinks about centering dignity, dignity, |
| 1:31.7 | injustice. |
| 1:32.7 | It's a word that we don't use often enough, and it has a real place in public discourse. |
| 1:39.1 | It's really informed the way I think about justice right now. My only other CODA is that we need more judges |
| 1:48.8 | on this show. We've had a couple judge Robert Lasnik came on. It's really important for the |
| 1:57.3 | American public to hear from judges and former judges about how they think and what they do. |
| 2:03.5 | So to all you judges and former judges out there, please take a page, literally from Judge Pratt's book. |
| 2:10.6 | Don't just write books. Be on shows. Be in the public discourse because we need to hear that you are real people. |
| 2:19.3 | It's part of why the integrity and the dignity of the court is something that feels so |
| 2:25.1 | elusive. |
| 2:25.6 | So with all that, it is such a joy to introduce the Honorable Victoria Pratt. |
| 2:31.9 | She served as the chief judge of the Newark Municipal Court, is a professor at the Rutgers-Newark School of Criminal Justice, and she is taught at Rutgers School of Law. |
| 2:41.6 | Her TED Talk, How Judges Can Show Respect, has been viewed over 30 million times. Judge Pratt, welcome to Amicus. |
... |
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