Dr. James Forman

Biography

James Forman Jr. is the J. Skelly Wright Professor of Law at Yale Law School. He graduated with a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1992 and received his A.B. from Brown University in 1988. Forman worked for six years as a public defender in Washington, D.C., where he represented juveniles and adults charged with crimes. Frustrated by the lack of educational and job training opportunities for his clients, he became a co-founder of the Maya Angelou School in 1997, which aims to provide alternative schooling for youth who have been arrested. His scholarship focuses on the intersections of schools, policing, and prisons, with a particular interest in the racial and class dimensions of these institutions. Forman is the author of the award-winning book 'Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America,' which was on the New York Times' list of top 10 books of 2017 and won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 2018. He has also contributed to the field through his recent work, including the co-edited anthology 'Dismantling Mass Incarceration: Handbook for Change.' As a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, Forman is actively engaged in advancing racial justice and addressing the systemic issues within the criminal justice system.

Research Interests