Books & Books Presents…

AN EVENING WITH JANE SPINAK

discussing

The End of Family Court: How Abolishing the Court Brings Justice to Children and Families

(New York University Press, $43.75)

Wednesday, February 21, 7:00 PM | Books & Books, Coconut Grove

RSVP HERE FOR FREE

Books & Books is thrilled to present an in-person evening with Jane Spinak to discuss her thought-provoking new book: The End of Family Court: How Abolishing the Court Brings Justice to Children and Families (New York University Press, $43.75)

This event is FREE and open to the public and books will be available for purchase the night of the event! Please RSVP only if you intend to join us.

About the Book:

Explores the failures of family court and calls for immediate and permanent change

At the turn of the twentieth century, American social reformers created the first juvenile court. They imagined a therapeutic court where informality, specially trained public servants, and a kindly, all-knowing judge would assist children and families. But the dream of a benevolent means of judicial problem-solving was never realized. A century later, children and families continue to be failed by this deeply flawed court.The End of Family Court rejects the foundational premise that family court can do good when intervening in family life and challenges its endless reinvention to survive. Jane M. Spinak illustrates how the procedures and policies of modern family court are deeply entwined in a heritage of racism, a profound disdain for poverty, and assimilationist norms intent on fixing children and families who are different. And the court’s interventionist goals remain steeped in an approach to equity and well-being that demands individual rather than collective responsibility for the security and welfare of families.Spinak proposes concrete steps toward abolishing the court: shifting most family supports out of the court’s sphere, vastly reducing the types and number of matters that need court intervention, and ensuring that any case that requires legal adjudication has the due process protections of a court of law. She calls for strategies that center trusting and respecting the abilities of communities to create and sustain meaningful solutions for families. An abolitionist approach, in turn, celebrates a radical imagination that embraces and supports all families in a fair and equal economic and political democracy.

BUY THE BOOK HERE