Prison Abolition in Practice

Join the University of Houston chapters of the National Lawyers Guild, If/When/How, and the American Constitution Society for a talk by criminal defense attorney and former judge Franklin Bynum on Tuesday, March 5 at 12pm, as part of the National Lawyers Guild's Week of Abolition. 

Franklin Bynum is a lawyer, organizer, speaker, and consultant in Houston, Texas. From 2019 through 2022 he served as judge of Harris County Criminal Court at Law #8, where he led the efforts to dismantle the historically oppressive bail system for misdemeanors and replace it with the most comprehensive, robust, and effective system of bail reform yet implemented in any large city in the United States. Previously, Judge Bynum served as one of the first lawyers at the Harris County Public Defender’s Office, where he implemented a nation-leading program providing immigration consultations to indigent immigrants charged in Harris County. A veteran of many criminal trials and appeals, Judge Bynum is Board Certified in Criminal Appellate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. 

Judge Bynum will present on how to work in the trenches and be abolitionist, or at least remember and not get your brain eaten. He will discuss his perspectives on bail reform in Harris County and how young lawyers can advocate for abolitionist values even from within flawed institutions.