Research Catalog
Profit and punishment : how America criminalizes the poor in the name of justice
- Title
- Profit and punishment : how America criminalizes the poor in the name of justice / Tony Messenger.
- Author
- Messenger, Tony
- Publication
- New York : St. Martin's Press, 2021.
- ©2021
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1 Item
| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text | Request in advance | HV95 .M38 2021 | Off-site |
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Details
- Description
- xxvi, 244 pages; 25 cm
- Summary
- "As a columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Tony Messenger has spent years in county and municipal courthouses documenting how poor Americans are convicted of minor crimes and then saddled with exorbitant fines and fees. If they are unable to pay, they are often sent to prison, where they are then charged a pay-to-stay bill, in a cycle that soon creates a mountain of debt that can take years to pay off. These insidious penalties are used to raise money for broken local and state budgets, often overseen by for-profit companies, and it is one of the central issues of the criminal justice reform movement. In the tradition of Evicted and The New Jim Crow, Messenger has written a call to arms, shining a light on a two-tiered system invisible to most Americans. He introduces readers to three single mothers caught up in this system: living in poverty in Missouri, Georgia, and South Carolina, whose lives are upended when minor offenses become monumental financial catastrophes. As these women struggle to clear their debt and move on with their lives, readers meet the dogged civil rights advocates and lawmakers fighting by their side to create a more equitable and fair court of justice. Tony Messenger exposes injustice that is agonizing and infuriating in its mundane cruelty, as he champions the rights and dignity of some of the most vulnerable Americans"--
- Alternative Title
- How America criminalizes the poor in the name of justice
- Subject
- Poverty > Government policy > United States
- Poor > Government policy > United States
- Criminal justice, Administration of > United States
- Imprisonment > United States
- Equality > United States
- Civil rights
- Poverty > legislation & jurisprudence
- Prisoners > legislation & jurisprudence
- Criminal Law > economics
- Financial Stress
- Civil Rights
- Legislation as Topic
- Pauvreté > Politique gouvernementale > États-Unis
- Pauvres > Politique gouvernementale > États-Unis
- Justice pénale > Administration > États-Unis
- Emprisonnement > États-Unis
- Droits de l'homme
- civil rights
- SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General
- Criminal justice, Administration of
- Poor > Government policy
- Poverty > Government policy
- Administration of criminal justice > United States
- United States
- United States
- Genre/Form
- Missouri Authors.
- Case studies.
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Contents
- By the numbers -- The poverty penalty -- Going to court -- The arrest -- Taxation by citation -- No sale of justice -- Failure to pay -- Debtors' prison -- Pay to stay -- The key to the jailhouse door -- Judges vs. judges -- Path to freedom -- The courthouse -- The capitol -- The Koch brothers meet the ACLU -- A tale of two letters -- Poverty is relative.
- ISBN
- 9781250274649
- 1250274648
- 9781250274656 (canceled/invalid)
- LCCN
- 2021034260
- 99990482024
- 40030933316
- OCLC
- on1227086166
- 1227086166
- Owning Institutions
- Columbia University Libraries