Institutional Accountability and Transparency

Sor Juana famously made public the contradictions and injustices within Church authority, refusing to let institutional power operate in hidden ways. She insisted on transparency and accountability. Criminal justice systems claim legitimacy through law and procedure, yet often operate through opacity: secret witness identities, sealed records, confidential settlements, institutional cultures of silence. This opacity enables injustice. Police misconduct is hidden, prosecutorial errors are protected by immunity, judges face minimal accountability, prisons operate largely unmonitored. Sor Juana's legacy demands transparent institutions. This means: public access to criminal records, body camera footage, and disciplinary records; sunlight on plea bargaining practices and sentencing disparities; investigation and public reporting of institutional failures; genuine civilian oversight of police and corrections; whistleblower protections for those exposing wrongdoing. It means treating institutional secrecy as a warning sign, not a feature. When criminal justice systems operate in shadow, injustice flourishes. Transparency is not incompatible with fairness; it is foundational to fairness. Sor Juana understood that exposed injustice can be challenged; hidden injustice perpetuates. Justice systems honoring her example would make visible their operations, their failures, and the people affected by their power.