Before Kalief Browder, Michael Lewis found himself denied justice by the criminal justice system.

In 1997, Michael Lewis was convicted of murder and sentenced to life. Decades later, the impact of his imprisonment still exists.

Wise people have made powerful statements about how we reflect on our mistakes only after we have committed them. We take for granted how caught up we can be in the times. In the 1990s, violence was rising due to crack, and many politicians saw this as a chance to advance. President Bill Clinton’s 1994 Crime Bill fought crime with mass incarceration. Although we give him grief for it, black people too conformed to the ideas of our kids being super-predators. Politicians and authors alike embraced the idea of black males being inherently violent. Names like Robert “Yummy” Sandifer became embedded in our psyches to justify the need for more jails and police. Most major cities opted to imprison people rather than rehabilitating them.

Violence was at an all-time high. In the 90s, Atlanta was third in the nation for violent crime, falling behind Miami and New Orleans. Atlanta undertook a major renovation project and in 1996 hosted the Olympics. The following year Michael Lewis’ case rocked the city, drawing national attention because of the crime…