“Poor Justice: Case Studies in Punishment and Inequality" lecture by Dr. Bruce Western, President, Russell Sage Foundation.

Western is a sociologist of poverty and inequality whose research examines the social and economic impact of criminal justice policy and incarceration. He is the author of two prize-winning books, Homeward: Life in the Year After Prison (2018) and Punishment and Inequality in America (2006), and he co-chaired expert panels for the National Academy of Sciences on COVID-19 in US prisons and racial inequality in the American criminal justice system. Western is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and the American Philosophical Society. Before coming to RSF, Western was the Bryce Professor of Sociology and Social Justice at Columbia University (2018-2024), professor of sociology and the Guggenheim Professor of Criminal Justice Policy at Harvard University (2007-2018), and professor of sociology at Princeton University (1993-2007).