Profit and Punishment: How America Criminalizes the Poor in the Name of Justice

St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Messenger debuts with a heartbreaking study of how the American justice system is weighted against the poor. Arguing that there are in fact two justice systems (“one for people with money, one for people without”), Messenger profiles individuals who have spent years in jail, or have fallen into serious debt, because an initial misdemeanor charge led to massive fines and escalating fees that they couldn’t pay. As a result of Republican promises to never raise taxes, Messenger notes, cities saw their budgets shrink alarmingly over the past few decades. To make up for this shortfall, municipalities relied on revenue from traffic tickets, parolee drug testing, jail boarding fees, and increased bail. To that end, Messenger outlines the stoyr of Brooke Bergen, who pled guilty to shoplifting an $8 tube of mascara in 2016 and was given a one-year suspended sentence, but violated her parole by missing a phone check-in. When she was released from jail, Bergen owed nearly $16,000 in fees. In some states, nearly half of inmates are jailed for probation violations such as failure to pay—a situation Messenger argues is a violation of the Constitution’s guarantee of due process. Interweaving hard evidence with harrowing firsthand stories, this is a powerful call for change. (Dec.)