| Description |
1 online resource (248 pages) |
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text file rdaft |
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(pdf) |
| Access |
Access limited to subscribing institutions. |
| Summary |
An attorney and former inmate examines the toxic relationship between predatory fines and America's prison industrial complex. Debtors' prisons might sound like something out of a Dickens novel, but the practice is alive and well in a new and startling form. Today more than 20 percent of the prison population is incarcerated for financial reasons such as failing to pay a fine. While this alarming trend is disastrous for the poor, it also ensnares millions of middle-class people who are struggling to make ends meet. Many counties across the country depend on the revenue generated by fines and court costs. The penalties for minor vehicle infractions are designed to rack up charges that go straight to the city's coffers. Meanwhile, many people don't realize that failure to pay fines comes with the risk of being jailed. This situation leads to an endless cycle of men and women either in debt or in prison for debt. In The New Debtors' Prison , Christopher Maselli draws from his personal knowledge of the criminal justice system based on his experience on both sides of the prison walls as an attorney as well as a former inmate. He take a hard look at our modern prison system and how it targets the poor and vulnerable of our society in order to fund the prison-industrial complex. |
| Note |
Publisher metadata. |
| Indexed Term |
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Penology |
| Subject |
Fines (Penalties) -- United States.
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Debt, Imprisonment for -- United States.
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Civil rights.
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| Genre/Form |
Electronic books.
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| Added Author |
Lonardo, Paul, author.
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| ISBN |
9781510733268 (e-pub) |
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9781510733251 (print) |
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