| Edition |
First edition. |
| Description |
xxvi, 244 pages ; 25 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 191-235) and index. |
| Contents |
By the numbers -- Prologue: the poverty penalty -- Part I: Going to court -- The arrest -- Taxation by citation -- No sale of justice -- Failure to pay -- Part II: Debtors' prison -- Pay to stay -- The key to the jailhouse door -- Judges vs. judges -- Part III: Path to freedom -- The courthouse -- The capitol -- The Koch brothers meet the ACLU -- A tale of two letters -- Epilogue: Poverty is relative. |
| 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. In this remarkable feat of reporting, 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"-- Provided by publisher. |
| Subject |
Poverty -- Government policy -- United States.
|
|
Poor -- Government policy -- United States.
|
| Local Subject |
Poor people -- Government policy -- United States.
|
| Subject |
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General.
|
|
Imprisonment -- United States.
|
|
Criminal justice, Administration of. (OCoLC)fst00883246
|
|
Criminal justice, Administration of -- United States.
|
|
Poor -- Government policy.
(OCoLC)fst01071075
|
|
Poverty -- Government policy.
(OCoLC)fst01074100
|
|
United States. (OCoLC)fst01204155
|
| Genre/Form |
Missouri Authors.
|
| Added Title |
How America criminalizes the poor in the name of justice |
| Other Form: |
Online version: Messenger, Tony. Profit and punishment. New York : St. Martin's Press, 2021 9781250274656 (OCoLC)1287937835 |
| ISBN |
9781250274649 (hardcover) |
|
1250274648 (hardcover) |
|
9781250274656 electronic book |
| Standard No. |
40030933316 |
|
