Module 3 – Institutions and Injustice

Why Institutions Matter

Laws are only as just as the institutions that enforce them.

Courts, prisons, borders, and legal procedures claim to deliver fairness—but do they?

In this module, we explore how the machinery of justice sometimes betrays the very values it claims to uphold. From courtroom inequality to immigration policy, from prison labor to unequal access to representation, we confront the uncomfortable truth:

Justice can be systemically unjust.

What You Will Learn

• How courtroom settings, legal language, and power imbalances distort fairness

• Why wealth and status shape legal outcomes far more than merit

• The roots and realities of mass incarceration

• Whether borders serve safety—or exclude the vulnerable

• How international law seeks justice across nations

This module challenges students to analyze systems, not just individuals—to see how injustice is often built into the very rules of the game.

Why This Matters

If we do not understand institutional injustice, we risk mistaking individual failure for systemic design.

This module helps you see how people experience law differently based on wealth, citizenship, and political power—and how entire systems can be rebuilt in more just ways.

Key Questions You Will Explore

• Can a trial be fair if only one side can afford proper defense?

• Do prisons reform people—or recycle them?

• Are borders moral boundaries, or political tools?

• Who enforces international law—and who escapes it?

• What does it mean to belong to a just society?

Lessons in This Module

• Lesson 1 – The Courtroom and the Illusion of Fairness – Is Justice Really Blind?

• Lesson 2 – Wealth and Punishment – Can the Poor Afford Justice?

• Lesson 3 – The Prison System – Rehabilitation or Profit Machine?

• Lesson 4 – Immigration and Borders – Who Deserves to Belong?

• Lesson 5 – Justice Across Borders: International Law and Global Responsibility

• Lesson 6 – Jury Duty and Democratic Justice – Who Decides?

• Lesson 7 – The Politics of Prosecution – Who Gets Charged, and Why?

• Lesson 8 – Access Denied – Language, Disability, and Barriers to Legal Rights

Institutions are built by people—

But people must have the courage to rebuild them when they fail.