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Not a Crime to Be Poor: The Criminalization of Poverty in America
Awarded "Special Recognition" by the 2018 Robert F. Kennedy Book & Journalism Awards
Finalist for the American Bar Association's 2018 Silver Gavel Book Award
Named one of the "10 books to read after you've read Evicted" by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"A powerful investigation into the ways the United States has addressed poverty. . . . Lucid and troubling."
--Matthew Desmond, author of Evicted, in The Chronicle of Higher Education
A nationally known expert on poverty shows how not having money has been criminalized and shines a light on lawyers, activists, and policy makers working for a more humane approach
In addition to exposing racially biased policing, the Justice Department's Ferguson Report exposed to the world a system of fines and fees levied for minor crimes in Ferguson, Missouri, that, when they proved too expensive for Ferguson's largely poor, African American population, resulted in jail sentences for thousands of people.
As former staffer to Robert F. Kennedy and current Georgetown law professor Peter Edelman explains in Not a Crime to Be Poor, Ferguson is everywhere in America today. Through money bail systems, fees and fines, strictly enforced laws and regulations against behavior including trespassing and public urination that largely affect the homeless, and the substitution of prisons and jails for the mental hospitals that have traditionally served the impoverished, in one of the richest countries on Earth we have effectively made it a crime to be poor.
Edelman, who famously resigned from the administration of Bill Clinton over welfare "reform," connects the dots between these policies and others including school discipline in poor communities, child support policies affecting the poor, public housing ordinances, addiction treatment, and the specter of public benefits fraud to paint a picture of a mean-spirited, retributive system that seals whole communities into inescapable cycles of poverty.
Finalist for the American Bar Association's 2018 Silver Gavel Book Award
Named one of the "10 books to read after you've read Evicted" by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"A powerful investigation into the ways the United States has addressed poverty. . . . Lucid and troubling."
--Matthew Desmond, author of Evicted, in The Chronicle of Higher Education
A nationally known expert on poverty shows how not having money has been criminalized and shines a light on lawyers, activists, and policy makers working for a more humane approach
In addition to exposing racially biased policing, the Justice Department's Ferguson Report exposed to the world a system of fines and fees levied for minor crimes in Ferguson, Missouri, that, when they proved too expensive for Ferguson's largely poor, African American population, resulted in jail sentences for thousands of people.
As former staffer to Robert F. Kennedy and current Georgetown law professor Peter Edelman explains in Not a Crime to Be Poor, Ferguson is everywhere in America today. Through money bail systems, fees and fines, strictly enforced laws and regulations against behavior including trespassing and public urination that largely affect the homeless, and the substitution of prisons and jails for the mental hospitals that have traditionally served the impoverished, in one of the richest countries on Earth we have effectively made it a crime to be poor.
Edelman, who famously resigned from the administration of Bill Clinton over welfare "reform," connects the dots between these policies and others including school discipline in poor communities, child support policies affecting the poor, public housing ordinances, addiction treatment, and the specter of public benefits fraud to paint a picture of a mean-spirited, retributive system that seals whole communities into inescapable cycles of poverty.
293 pages, Hardcover
First published October 31, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews
December 15, 2017
This was a very good survey of all the ways in which the poor get screwed by the legal system. It's expensive to be poor and in some circumstances, it is a crime. The book is dry and technical and not an easy read, but what I liked about it is that instead of just talking about problems, Edelman also talks about solutions--as in, not solutions that should be tried, but things that are currently being done to remedy each problem. It's a pragmatic book--not a polemic. More a resource to advocates of the poor and policymakers than an interesting read.
My criticism: after talking about all the ways people get screwed, in the end his solutions were all about parenting education. Not fixing poverty. So the problem was poverty, right? Not bad parenting?
My criticism: after talking about all the ways people get screwed, in the end his solutions were all about parenting education. Not fixing poverty. So the problem was poverty, right? Not bad parenting?
November 23, 2017
Very eye-opening book about the manner in which American poverty has become criminalized over the last 30 years--through mass incarceration, the money bail system, child support enforcement, housing ordinances, etc. What's interesting about Edelman's book is that it is mostly solutions based; instead of constant reporting on the problems that he makes abundantly clear, he offers solutions at the end of each chapter as well as a lengthy section at the end of the book that's packed with information on people who are making changes in the laws, states that are doing the right thing, and programs that are making a difference. It's fair and balanced, which I liked.
July 18, 2018
This book is a great analysis about the impact of poverty on involvement in the America’s courts. From Ferguson to Georgia and many other places, the author takes a deep dive into the ways that courts as moneymakers are completely normalized in our country. But he doesn’t stop there. He makes a strong case for the need for total reformation of our culture with regard to poverty and access to services. And it definitely helped that he included a number of stories from the work of the Southern Center for Human Rights. I’m looking forward to interviewing him on stage tomorrow in Atlanta!
November 5, 2021
One of my favorite informative reads this week. Did you know that employment gaps because of criminal records cost the U.S. gross domestic product an estimated over $65 billion a year, or that mass incarceration costs upwards of $80 billion a year? Peter Edelman offers a thoroughly researched, piercing examination of America’s criminalization of poverty, and its costs on households, communities, and the nation—from the severe, sometimes fatal abuse of mentally ill inmates whose lower income status impeded their ability to access treatment prior to conviction (and often led to their incarceration), the school to prison pipeline where “school resource officers”/police in half of U.S. public schools criminalized truancy and sent poor children to adult courts, to extensive fines and bails that disproportionately impact (and debilitate) the lives of low-income people, to lack of access to affordable legal counsel (which often leads to loss of job, home, liberty-due to debit—“lack of affordability limits an individual’s access to justice”, to diminishing public benefits for people with very low income and the criminalization of welfare (“even with an income far below the poverty line, it may be too high to receive any assistance”—p.91), to the national eviction crisis and criminalization of homelessness which perpetuate and exacerbate the cycle of poverty and incarceration. “If an individual convicted of one of these status offenses is unable to pay fines and fees levied as punishment, [they] can wind up back in jail for nonpayment…end up with a criminal record, which can make it even harder to obtain housing and employment…Homeless people are eleven times more likely to be incarcerated than the population as a whole” (p. 149).
December 19, 2017
Review to Follow
September 12, 2018
This isn't a very long book, but Edelman crams a lot of information into it. Effectively, we have turned being poor into a crime to be penalized. Edelman shows how this runs throughout the system: First, in the criminal justice system, politicians intent on cutting budgets have instead turned the courts into a source of revenue. Defendants are piled with fees they can't pay, then jailed for noncompliance, without access to lawyers. Their drivers' licenses are taken away, making it impossible to get to work and driving them deeper into debt. For lack of bail, they stay in pretrial detention, forcing them to accept plea agreements. In the welfare system, applicants are treated as would be fraudsters; criminal convictions, of any type, keep you from getting assistance. (Edelman quit the Clinton administration over welfare reform.) In schools, discipline is turned over to the criminal courts. Housing law is turned against poor people, from "nuisance" ordinances used against DV victims, to "crime free" housing. Each of these chapters could sustain its own book, but Edelman does a nice job of providing an overview that shows how they're linked together.
Unlike a lot of books, Edelman devotes a fair bit of space to solutions. What we have to do isn't mysterious, and there have been successes in reversing these trends.
Unlike a lot of books, Edelman devotes a fair bit of space to solutions. What we have to do isn't mysterious, and there have been successes in reversing these trends.
May 11, 2021
The beginning of this was very good and really put it in simple terms how ridiculous it is for things like if you can’t afford bail, you get your license suspended, and if you get your license suspended, you can’t go to work to make money to pay back our shit criminal justice system, and if you drive anyway and get caught with a suspended license well you’re going to jail. I also had no idea there was a “nuisance” law where the police could tell your landlord to evict you if you call them too often, very cool! Very cool for a profession that calls themselves public servants! The end of this book meandered a bit, like the stuff about Headstart programs was good but felt like it belonged in a different book.
Also, he talked about “banning the box” where employers aren’t allowed to ask about criminal records, and while that has made it so more people with records get hired, it has actually made it less likely for Black people to get hired because employers see a “Black” name, assume they’ve committed a crime, don’t even interview them. Gross oversight not to mention that in this book. Not only is it a crime to be poor, it’s a crime to be Black. Cool country. 1312 as usual.
Also, he talked about “banning the box” where employers aren’t allowed to ask about criminal records, and while that has made it so more people with records get hired, it has actually made it less likely for Black people to get hired because employers see a “Black” name, assume they’ve committed a crime, don’t even interview them. Gross oversight not to mention that in this book. Not only is it a crime to be poor, it’s a crime to be Black. Cool country. 1312 as usual.
January 20, 2018
Not the most riveting book but an important one. The last chapter profiled 7 programs that are making a big difference in the lives of the poor...and was the best of the book, IMO.
What else I took from this book is that all over our country are thousands of people working hard in the courts, the prisons, the jails, in neighborhoods, in schools, in corporations....to make lives better for poor people.
We who are fortunate must never dismiss the unfortunate.
What else I took from this book is that all over our country are thousands of people working hard in the courts, the prisons, the jails, in neighborhoods, in schools, in corporations....to make lives better for poor people.
We who are fortunate must never dismiss the unfortunate.
August 16, 2023
Very informative and well sourced. My favorites on this topic so far are still Automating Inequality by Virginia Eubanks and both books by Matthew Desmond. This one was a good primer, however.
I like books that make me think, and this one certainly has.
I like books that make me think, and this one certainly has.
October 8, 2025
Suppose that two children of the same age break the same rule and have similar track records. Yet one child gets hit with a strap ten times and the other just one time. Would that seem fair? How about if the first child got 100 strokes and the second just one? Even children recognize that justice requires the same punishment for the same offense.
Yet such stark inequality is found in the criminal justice system when it comes to fines and associated fees for traffic violations and other crimes.
Peter Edelman exposes and critiques the criminal justice system that routinely sends people to jail for being poor. What amounts to debtors' prison is one aspect of treating poverty as a crime.
In "Not a Crime to be Poor," Edelman describes in detail how the system disproportionately punishes the poor. Minor charges that aren't a concern to people with money can lead to mounting fines and fees for low-income folks. Indigent offenders sentenced to probation may be required to sign a payment plan as a condition of probation to satisfy their fines, fees, and late penalties.
Here's the math on inequality: A penalty of $1,000 in fines and fees is ten percent of the income of an indigent with an annual income of $10,000. But $1,000 is just one percent of an income of $100,000. So flat fines and fees not based upon income deprive an indigent of a ten times greater share of income than it does of a person making $100,000. The number is a 100 times greater percentage when the offender's income reaches $1,000,000.
Compounding the unjust treatment, the indigent needs that $1,000 for basic necessities while the millionaire doesn't.
In sum, charging the same flat fine to every violator, regardless of income, is highly regressive, taking a bigger share of income from those who can least afford to pay, while taking the smallest share from those who can best afford to pay.
A fair system would do just the opposite. Swedish traffic fines are based upon the percent of the offender's income so the loss of income is more evenly painful than flat fines.
The number of fees piled on to fines has been mushrooming in this century. Fees, which help to fund the court system, can multiply the total cost of a traffic ticket by several times. To pay for various governmental functions, legislators much prefer jacking up fees on those convicted rather than raising taxes.
In most states, offenders are charged the cost of their probation, even when probation only consists of complying with a payment plan. Most states also charge former detainees for their time in jail or prison. Private probation companies and collection firms are permitted to add surcharges on uncollected debt. These costs are typically imposed with no inquiry into the offender's ability to pay.
The legal mechanism is this: A low-income offender defaults on a payment plan, which constitutes contempt of court — a crime.
Numbers from 2017 found 10 million people owed a total of $50 billion in accumulated fines, fees, room and board for jail, public defender fees, etc. Nearly three of ten people booked in the Tulsa Jail in 2017 were arrested on court debt-related violations.
Tens of thousands of poor people are kept in jail for nonviolent charges because they can't make bail. So poor defendants stay in jail for minor, nonviolent offenses until their trial. By contrast, rich people charged with the same minor offense never await trial in jail because they can make bail. Money bail is clearly punitive for the working class; it might fairly be called "class warfare."
The fact is the majority of people in jails are awaiting trial, so they are detained even though they haven't been convicted. At New York's Rikers Island, the nation's most notorious jail, 85% of detainees have not been convicted.
Three-fourths of jail detainees are there for nonviolent traffic and other low-level offenses. Blacks are five times more likely to be detained than whites due in good part to money bail.
A minority of states permit defendants to be released on their own recognizance. When such release is merely an option, however, judges who face future elections are loathe to risk that a defendant the judge let out on recognizance would commit a heinous crime.
Many pretrial detainees have an incentive to plead guilty to the charges, even if they are innocent, in order to get out of jail. This incentive exists when the sentence is likely to be time served.
Illinois made progress in 2024 when it abolished routine use of money bail, though judges have discretion to detain dangerous accused. So far the results have been good, despite dire predictions by reform opponents.
Many states suspend driving privileges for nondriving offenses such as not keeping up with a payment plan. When low-income workers can't drive, they find it harder to keep a job. If they get caught driving on a suspended license, then the fines and fees keep adding up.
Poor people suffer from serious mental illness at higher rates than the affluent. The mentally ill are far more likely to end up in jail than in mental institutions. In fact, jail is the largest mental institution in the country, according to Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart who recogizes that "jails were never meant to be mental hospitals."
Rikers says that 40% of its detainees have mental illness. Yet treatment for mental illness is scarce for incarcerated persons.
"By substituting prisons and jails for mental hospitals, we have effectively criminalized mental illness along with the poverty that is often its source." One way to reduce the number of mentally ill detainees is to provide mental health services in low-income communities.
Another way some states criminalize poverty is with a modern form of debtor's prison. They incarcerate "deadbeat dads" even when they have low income and little ability to pay.
Indigent defendants aren't provided with lawyers because these cases are technically civil procedures. Delinquent child support payments continue to add up even when the father is in jail for unrelated offenses. Debtor's prison is a costly and ineffective way to squeeze
blood from a turnip.
Since Reagan, government has taken a punitive approach to welfare (now TANF) and other benefits for indigents. Persons with drug convictions are ineligible for welfare, (although not for tax breaks for the affluent.) More and more restrictions and reasons to disqualify applicants means fewer indigents getting the support they need.
The same is true with unemployment unsurance. In the today's part-time gig economy, a smaller proportion of the workforce qualifies for coverage. Greater restrictions in some states provide coverage for only one in ten workers. Some states have also shortened the benefit period.
A criminal conviction, particularly for a drug offense, renders the offender ineligible for various government benefits such as public housing but also for employment in licensed professions. Many employers and landlords will not hire or rent to persons with a criminal record. Consequently, convictions can condemn people to a lifetime of poverty.
Expungement of arrests without convictions as well as of some convictions is an effective way to reduce the lifetime penalty for a youthful mistake.
For many poor kids, their first brush with the law happens in school. Minor problems that were once handled by school officials are now turned over to school resource officers who may bring charges in the criminal justice system. The students charged by school cops are disproportionately poor, black or Latino. In some states, the students charged are as young as ten, and truancy is among the offenses.
Municipal nuisance ordinances permit police to order landlords to evict residents deemed to create a nuisance, even though the behavior need not be a crime and colud be "excessive" calls to 911. The definition of nuisance is usually broad, and residents get no due process before eviction.
The poorest people are homeless. In recent years, homelessness has been criminalized. Panhandling or camping under a bridge can lead to citations and fines. Failure to pay can lead to jail. Criminalization does not reduce homelessness and may perpetuate it.
Why are there such punitive policies aimed at the poor? Edelman attributes it to
racism and antipathy to low-income people generally.
There is a widespread attitude that the poor are to blame for their lack of income. In other words, poverty is a character flaw for which punishment is deserved. The corollary is that the rich deserve their wealth, even when their father was Sam Walton.
This negative attitude toward indigents persists even as economic inequality in the US is the widest among affluent nations, and class mobility is the most sluggish.
When anyone proposes raising taxes on the rich, (instead of lowering them again), the proponent is often accused of "class warfare." Readers of this book will have no doubt that class warfare exists, and that low-income Americans are its targets. -30-
Yet such stark inequality is found in the criminal justice system when it comes to fines and associated fees for traffic violations and other crimes.
Peter Edelman exposes and critiques the criminal justice system that routinely sends people to jail for being poor. What amounts to debtors' prison is one aspect of treating poverty as a crime.
In "Not a Crime to be Poor," Edelman describes in detail how the system disproportionately punishes the poor. Minor charges that aren't a concern to people with money can lead to mounting fines and fees for low-income folks. Indigent offenders sentenced to probation may be required to sign a payment plan as a condition of probation to satisfy their fines, fees, and late penalties.
Here's the math on inequality: A penalty of $1,000 in fines and fees is ten percent of the income of an indigent with an annual income of $10,000. But $1,000 is just one percent of an income of $100,000. So flat fines and fees not based upon income deprive an indigent of a ten times greater share of income than it does of a person making $100,000. The number is a 100 times greater percentage when the offender's income reaches $1,000,000.
Compounding the unjust treatment, the indigent needs that $1,000 for basic necessities while the millionaire doesn't.
In sum, charging the same flat fine to every violator, regardless of income, is highly regressive, taking a bigger share of income from those who can least afford to pay, while taking the smallest share from those who can best afford to pay.
A fair system would do just the opposite. Swedish traffic fines are based upon the percent of the offender's income so the loss of income is more evenly painful than flat fines.
The number of fees piled on to fines has been mushrooming in this century. Fees, which help to fund the court system, can multiply the total cost of a traffic ticket by several times. To pay for various governmental functions, legislators much prefer jacking up fees on those convicted rather than raising taxes.
In most states, offenders are charged the cost of their probation, even when probation only consists of complying with a payment plan. Most states also charge former detainees for their time in jail or prison. Private probation companies and collection firms are permitted to add surcharges on uncollected debt. These costs are typically imposed with no inquiry into the offender's ability to pay.
The legal mechanism is this: A low-income offender defaults on a payment plan, which constitutes contempt of court — a crime.
Numbers from 2017 found 10 million people owed a total of $50 billion in accumulated fines, fees, room and board for jail, public defender fees, etc. Nearly three of ten people booked in the Tulsa Jail in 2017 were arrested on court debt-related violations.
Tens of thousands of poor people are kept in jail for nonviolent charges because they can't make bail. So poor defendants stay in jail for minor, nonviolent offenses until their trial. By contrast, rich people charged with the same minor offense never await trial in jail because they can make bail. Money bail is clearly punitive for the working class; it might fairly be called "class warfare."
The fact is the majority of people in jails are awaiting trial, so they are detained even though they haven't been convicted. At New York's Rikers Island, the nation's most notorious jail, 85% of detainees have not been convicted.
Three-fourths of jail detainees are there for nonviolent traffic and other low-level offenses. Blacks are five times more likely to be detained than whites due in good part to money bail.
A minority of states permit defendants to be released on their own recognizance. When such release is merely an option, however, judges who face future elections are loathe to risk that a defendant the judge let out on recognizance would commit a heinous crime.
Many pretrial detainees have an incentive to plead guilty to the charges, even if they are innocent, in order to get out of jail. This incentive exists when the sentence is likely to be time served.
Illinois made progress in 2024 when it abolished routine use of money bail, though judges have discretion to detain dangerous accused. So far the results have been good, despite dire predictions by reform opponents.
Many states suspend driving privileges for nondriving offenses such as not keeping up with a payment plan. When low-income workers can't drive, they find it harder to keep a job. If they get caught driving on a suspended license, then the fines and fees keep adding up.
Poor people suffer from serious mental illness at higher rates than the affluent. The mentally ill are far more likely to end up in jail than in mental institutions. In fact, jail is the largest mental institution in the country, according to Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart who recogizes that "jails were never meant to be mental hospitals."
Rikers says that 40% of its detainees have mental illness. Yet treatment for mental illness is scarce for incarcerated persons.
"By substituting prisons and jails for mental hospitals, we have effectively criminalized mental illness along with the poverty that is often its source." One way to reduce the number of mentally ill detainees is to provide mental health services in low-income communities.
Another way some states criminalize poverty is with a modern form of debtor's prison. They incarcerate "deadbeat dads" even when they have low income and little ability to pay.
Indigent defendants aren't provided with lawyers because these cases are technically civil procedures. Delinquent child support payments continue to add up even when the father is in jail for unrelated offenses. Debtor's prison is a costly and ineffective way to squeeze
blood from a turnip.
Since Reagan, government has taken a punitive approach to welfare (now TANF) and other benefits for indigents. Persons with drug convictions are ineligible for welfare, (although not for tax breaks for the affluent.) More and more restrictions and reasons to disqualify applicants means fewer indigents getting the support they need.
The same is true with unemployment unsurance. In the today's part-time gig economy, a smaller proportion of the workforce qualifies for coverage. Greater restrictions in some states provide coverage for only one in ten workers. Some states have also shortened the benefit period.
A criminal conviction, particularly for a drug offense, renders the offender ineligible for various government benefits such as public housing but also for employment in licensed professions. Many employers and landlords will not hire or rent to persons with a criminal record. Consequently, convictions can condemn people to a lifetime of poverty.
Expungement of arrests without convictions as well as of some convictions is an effective way to reduce the lifetime penalty for a youthful mistake.
For many poor kids, their first brush with the law happens in school. Minor problems that were once handled by school officials are now turned over to school resource officers who may bring charges in the criminal justice system. The students charged by school cops are disproportionately poor, black or Latino. In some states, the students charged are as young as ten, and truancy is among the offenses.
Municipal nuisance ordinances permit police to order landlords to evict residents deemed to create a nuisance, even though the behavior need not be a crime and colud be "excessive" calls to 911. The definition of nuisance is usually broad, and residents get no due process before eviction.
The poorest people are homeless. In recent years, homelessness has been criminalized. Panhandling or camping under a bridge can lead to citations and fines. Failure to pay can lead to jail. Criminalization does not reduce homelessness and may perpetuate it.
Why are there such punitive policies aimed at the poor? Edelman attributes it to
racism and antipathy to low-income people generally.
There is a widespread attitude that the poor are to blame for their lack of income. In other words, poverty is a character flaw for which punishment is deserved. The corollary is that the rich deserve their wealth, even when their father was Sam Walton.
This negative attitude toward indigents persists even as economic inequality in the US is the widest among affluent nations, and class mobility is the most sluggish.
When anyone proposes raising taxes on the rich, (instead of lowering them again), the proponent is often accused of "class warfare." Readers of this book will have no doubt that class warfare exists, and that low-income Americans are its targets. -30-
February 1, 2018
Sometimes it’s obvious this book was written by a law professor, but Peter Edelman obviously has a strong passion for ending poverty. We have a lot to learn from him. Part one is all about how we have criminalized poverty, and includes chapters on debtors’ prisons, bail and the costs of probation, mental illness, child support, public benefits, school discipline, public housing, and homelessness. Part two is inspirational stories of how criminal justice is being reformed and organizations are successfully fighting poverty.
June 7, 2020
This book covers the ways our criminal justice system continues to punish people in poverty and create a never ending cycle that can affect poor people until they die. Most of these people are disproportionately Black.
Low income people are arrested for minor violations, which leads to fines that they cannot afford to pay, which leads to further incarceration and consequences like the suspension of their driver licenses. these inconveniences will prevent them from working and being able to ever pay off the mounting fines and fees they owe to the court. oh, and apparently room and board can be charged while in jail. all this, even though fining someone an amount they cannot pay is unconstitutional.
what was to me the most important section Wass on money bail- money that a defendant has to pay in order to be released until they can stand trial. of course, if youre poor, you cannot afford to pay the bail and you're left to wait in prison or plead guilty and be released. the great irony, the author mentions is that while you were presumed innocent you were too dangerous to be let go, but the moment you pleaded guilty, you are credited for time served and released. the problem is that pleading guilty will have negative consequences for the rest of your life in very important areas like housing and employment. I was shocked to read how many people are rotting away in jail not having been convicted of anything, but simply cannot afford to post bail.
the next issue is the school to prison pipeline or the problem where the increased presence of police officers in schools has lead to many more children, disproportionately black, being charged with crimes as juveniles.
he ends the book by talking about case studies of organizations in various cities around the country that are trying to address the issues that can lead to poverty in their neighborhoods. these involve providing childcare, housing and preventing eviction, finding jobs for people in the community.
I think this book was pretty well researched with a nice intermixing of statistics to support his statements. he also includes Stories of real people to put a face to the problem. The book taught me more about how police and courts create a cycle of poverty for many poor people, and leaves them with no way out. The ending provides a sliver of optimism for how we might be able decriminalize poverty.
Low income people are arrested for minor violations, which leads to fines that they cannot afford to pay, which leads to further incarceration and consequences like the suspension of their driver licenses. these inconveniences will prevent them from working and being able to ever pay off the mounting fines and fees they owe to the court. oh, and apparently room and board can be charged while in jail. all this, even though fining someone an amount they cannot pay is unconstitutional.
what was to me the most important section Wass on money bail- money that a defendant has to pay in order to be released until they can stand trial. of course, if youre poor, you cannot afford to pay the bail and you're left to wait in prison or plead guilty and be released. the great irony, the author mentions is that while you were presumed innocent you were too dangerous to be let go, but the moment you pleaded guilty, you are credited for time served and released. the problem is that pleading guilty will have negative consequences for the rest of your life in very important areas like housing and employment. I was shocked to read how many people are rotting away in jail not having been convicted of anything, but simply cannot afford to post bail.
the next issue is the school to prison pipeline or the problem where the increased presence of police officers in schools has lead to many more children, disproportionately black, being charged with crimes as juveniles.
he ends the book by talking about case studies of organizations in various cities around the country that are trying to address the issues that can lead to poverty in their neighborhoods. these involve providing childcare, housing and preventing eviction, finding jobs for people in the community.
I think this book was pretty well researched with a nice intermixing of statistics to support his statements. he also includes Stories of real people to put a face to the problem. The book taught me more about how police and courts create a cycle of poverty for many poor people, and leaves them with no way out. The ending provides a sliver of optimism for how we might be able decriminalize poverty.
December 15, 2018
I was looking forward to some objective information about American society and how the poor are criminalized. This book was not as objective as I was hoping. There was definitely a liberal slant throughout. I agreed with some, but not all, of the ideas presented. Some ideas didn't seem practical/feasible to me.
I had been especially interested to see what this book had to say about child support -- but I didn't really learn anything new.
I definitely agree that we need better systems for mental health care and that lack of access to mental health care is a huge component of the criminalization of poverty. It was interesting and rewarding to hear about some of the community projects that are helping lift people from poverty, especially about the areas near to me. But that last chapter was awfully long and I confess I ultimately skimmed it.
I had been especially interested to see what this book had to say about child support -- but I didn't really learn anything new.
I definitely agree that we need better systems for mental health care and that lack of access to mental health care is a huge component of the criminalization of poverty. It was interesting and rewarding to hear about some of the community projects that are helping lift people from poverty, especially about the areas near to me. But that last chapter was awfully long and I confess I ultimately skimmed it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 14, 2018
I read a lot of books about poverty and mass incarceration--Just Mercy, New Jim Crow, Evicted, etc.--and I found this book to be disappointing. This book was simply not an enjoyable read. It was too dense, and I found I could only read 20 pages at a time without my eyes glazing over.
August 30, 2018
I had to skim the last 70 pages. This is such an important topic; but I felt that this book was just throwing numbers at me with no real context. I would highly recommend reading Evicted, which touches on this topic in a much more approachable manner.
July 29, 2020
Peter Edelman, Director of the f Georgetown University Law Center and Director of Center on Poverty and Inequality at Georgetown, launches by saying we have a “modern peonage” system in the US. It’s a government-operated loan-shark operation.
What bothers him the most is that those white collar criminals who get a slap on the wrist for things that are not allowed. (xv) The bad goys were the ones who push an anti-taxes force that will damage to elements of our country (xvi)
He goes on to lay out a way to begin to beginning (it’s NOT a typo) about what we can do. And to write such a book, he has the data and the vision to start a new way to look at poverty.
He launches chapter 1 with an overview of twenty-first debtor prisons. He has many such prisons. “The very-act of jailing an indigent person for a fine-only, low level offense is unconstitutional.” (4) Judges are treating people very differently (5) and standards for bail are often unconstitutional. (6) The 1990’s, the standards for bail changed a lot. He brings the idea with several stories. (7-10)
At the end of chapter 1, we get 45 references
Naturally, chapter 2 is called “Fighting Back: The Advocates and Their Work.” There’s plenty of details of work in Missouri, Alabama, California (where drivers’ licenses are taken away) as well as Philadelphia, and other large cities.
The follow up is a chapter called Money Bail. It’s about of people who needed very high bail to get out of jail (45) and 11.7 million people are put in jail in a “given year”. (46). The problem, according to the author, is the bail system. (47) To my surprise, the National Association of Chiefs of Place and others have come out for bail reform. (52)
Chapter 4 is The Criminalization of Mental Illness. We get the data about the significant growth of mental illness in Florida by 153%. (64)
Chapter 5 focuses on Child Support Criminalizing Poor Fathers. There’s plenty of examples of cases and data.
Chapter 6, “Criminalizing Public Benefits,” states “Criminalization is not so much a strategy to actually put people in jail for welfare fraud and other infractions as it is a method to scare them away from even applying for benefits.” (95) He says that Michigan is the worst on this issue. (101) There are multiple analyses of what’s wrong about public benefits. (109)
He also moves from the data to a few pages to identify who gets hurt in the system: children. (113) With a brighter piece: inmates who have education in prison show the most success outside prison (114)
In his “Poverty, Race, and Discipline In Schools: Go Directly to Jail” points to the damage experienced by children who get pull into the criminal system. However he gives a section to how best to treat children to an adult court. (124)
Part Two, Ending Poverty, begins with Chapter 6, “Taking Criminal Justice Reform Seriously.” In the first page, he blames President Nixon for what he did to get in the 1968 election by reaching out to Dixiecrats. (159)
The final chapter provides some light. He uses a different metaphor ”Turning the Coin Over: Ending Poverty as We Know It.” (183) He points to the successes in devise large cities..
The book can become difficult to follow at times. At the same time, the author writes in way that reveals his energy and passion and gives us a lot of material to see a way to saving cities in America and the people of all of us.
The upper level of people working in city governments should be required to read and discuss the book. Middle and lower people working for large cities should read it too. Grad students in relevant areas of political science should read it too. All the highest level staff in the divisions of a large cities government must read it.
What bothers him the most is that those white collar criminals who get a slap on the wrist for things that are not allowed. (xv) The bad goys were the ones who push an anti-taxes force that will damage to elements of our country (xvi)
He goes on to lay out a way to begin to beginning (it’s NOT a typo) about what we can do. And to write such a book, he has the data and the vision to start a new way to look at poverty.
He launches chapter 1 with an overview of twenty-first debtor prisons. He has many such prisons. “The very-act of jailing an indigent person for a fine-only, low level offense is unconstitutional.” (4) Judges are treating people very differently (5) and standards for bail are often unconstitutional. (6) The 1990’s, the standards for bail changed a lot. He brings the idea with several stories. (7-10)
At the end of chapter 1, we get 45 references
Naturally, chapter 2 is called “Fighting Back: The Advocates and Their Work.” There’s plenty of details of work in Missouri, Alabama, California (where drivers’ licenses are taken away) as well as Philadelphia, and other large cities.
The follow up is a chapter called Money Bail. It’s about of people who needed very high bail to get out of jail (45) and 11.7 million people are put in jail in a “given year”. (46). The problem, according to the author, is the bail system. (47) To my surprise, the National Association of Chiefs of Place and others have come out for bail reform. (52)
Chapter 4 is The Criminalization of Mental Illness. We get the data about the significant growth of mental illness in Florida by 153%. (64)
Chapter 5 focuses on Child Support Criminalizing Poor Fathers. There’s plenty of examples of cases and data.
Chapter 6, “Criminalizing Public Benefits,” states “Criminalization is not so much a strategy to actually put people in jail for welfare fraud and other infractions as it is a method to scare them away from even applying for benefits.” (95) He says that Michigan is the worst on this issue. (101) There are multiple analyses of what’s wrong about public benefits. (109)
He also moves from the data to a few pages to identify who gets hurt in the system: children. (113) With a brighter piece: inmates who have education in prison show the most success outside prison (114)
In his “Poverty, Race, and Discipline In Schools: Go Directly to Jail” points to the damage experienced by children who get pull into the criminal system. However he gives a section to how best to treat children to an adult court. (124)
Part Two, Ending Poverty, begins with Chapter 6, “Taking Criminal Justice Reform Seriously.” In the first page, he blames President Nixon for what he did to get in the 1968 election by reaching out to Dixiecrats. (159)
The final chapter provides some light. He uses a different metaphor ”Turning the Coin Over: Ending Poverty as We Know It.” (183) He points to the successes in devise large cities..
The book can become difficult to follow at times. At the same time, the author writes in way that reveals his energy and passion and gives us a lot of material to see a way to saving cities in America and the people of all of us.
The upper level of people working in city governments should be required to read and discuss the book. Middle and lower people working for large cities should read it too. Grad students in relevant areas of political science should read it too. All the highest level staff in the divisions of a large cities government must read it.
October 25, 2019
I feel like this book is the love-child of Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed" and Alexander's "The New Jim Crow." It's a comprehensive and detailed summation of how the state of poverty not only leaves individuals vulnerable to incarceration in modern day America (often as early as childhood via the school-to-prison pipeline) but also how incarceration prevents them from rising out of poverty long after their time has been served. Particularly fascinating is his discussion of how mass incarceration has increased in conjunction with the scarcity of good jobs, effectively rationing employment by siphoning off part of the potential workforce to prison.
Unlike Alexander, Edelman does not focus on racial bias as a contributing factor to mass incarceration, but he is careful to note the disparate impact the criminalization of poverty has on minorities and makes a point of exposing the racist motivations behind certain housing policies. Some of the information will be familiar to those who are already well read on the subject and Edelman spends a bit more time than I would have liked detailing exemplary programs across the country which are working to ameliorate the causes of poverty in their local communities, but these are minor quibbles. This is an excellent resource for anyone trying to educate themselves on poverty and the prison-industrial complex.
Unlike Alexander, Edelman does not focus on racial bias as a contributing factor to mass incarceration, but he is careful to note the disparate impact the criminalization of poverty has on minorities and makes a point of exposing the racist motivations behind certain housing policies. Some of the information will be familiar to those who are already well read on the subject and Edelman spends a bit more time than I would have liked detailing exemplary programs across the country which are working to ameliorate the causes of poverty in their local communities, but these are minor quibbles. This is an excellent resource for anyone trying to educate themselves on poverty and the prison-industrial complex.
May 27, 2022
Ooooooof. The things we have done to each other in this country. Jeez. I have no words.
This book was very detailed and thorough history and analysis of how we have criminalized poverty in America. And it specifically talks about the tie between race schism, race, and poverty. Unfortunately you can’t have one without the other, most the time.
In part one, Edelman talks about 21st century debtors’ prisons; money bail; criminalization of mental illness, child support, public benefits; how schools direct students of color directly to jail; and the criminalization of homelessness. This was intense and eye-opening. The Reagan years and politics since then have ruined opportunities for people in poverty to an outrageous degree.
Part two talks about what needs to happen in criminal justice reform and highlights organizations across the nation that are doing good work to end property. This was more inspiring but still the amount of work we as a country need to do…..I just hope there are enough people willing to make it happen.
In the afterward Edelman says “… There’s still nothing like an national movement… “ and that we need this kind of attention and activism to end the criminalization of poverty. I believe he is right and hope that by putting books like this on people‘s radar, more awareness will be spread. Everyone deserves a chance at life, regardless of poverty status!
This book was very detailed and thorough history and analysis of how we have criminalized poverty in America. And it specifically talks about the tie between race schism, race, and poverty. Unfortunately you can’t have one without the other, most the time.
In part one, Edelman talks about 21st century debtors’ prisons; money bail; criminalization of mental illness, child support, public benefits; how schools direct students of color directly to jail; and the criminalization of homelessness. This was intense and eye-opening. The Reagan years and politics since then have ruined opportunities for people in poverty to an outrageous degree.
Part two talks about what needs to happen in criminal justice reform and highlights organizations across the nation that are doing good work to end property. This was more inspiring but still the amount of work we as a country need to do…..I just hope there are enough people willing to make it happen.
In the afterward Edelman says “… There’s still nothing like an national movement… “ and that we need this kind of attention and activism to end the criminalization of poverty. I believe he is right and hope that by putting books like this on people‘s radar, more awareness will be spread. Everyone deserves a chance at life, regardless of poverty status!
February 12, 2018
Of great relevance to me while I was finishing Edelman's book is that I was serving on a jury to determine the guilt or innocence of a man charged with being the operator of a marijuana stash house and a weapons charge. As I watched the young man during three days of witness testimony I could not help but reflect on Edelman's book and the multiple decades where US law has been tightened to be "tough on crime" and as we have learned that ultimately we are creating a worse problem for our society. As Edelman points out "Ferguson is Everywhere".
Of course, the defendant in my case was guilty. After reading Edelman's book I wonder how many of us are complicit in creating and maintaining a system (debtors prisons, bail industry, private prison industry, criminalizing mental illness, criminalizing poor fathers, criminalizing public benefits, the school to prison pipeline, and criminalizing homelessness) that holds multiple generations of the poor down without hope and when they act out we sit back and can honestly say "Of course they are guilty and that is why they are poor".
Of course, the defendant in my case was guilty. After reading Edelman's book I wonder how many of us are complicit in creating and maintaining a system (debtors prisons, bail industry, private prison industry, criminalizing mental illness, criminalizing poor fathers, criminalizing public benefits, the school to prison pipeline, and criminalizing homelessness) that holds multiple generations of the poor down without hope and when they act out we sit back and can honestly say "Of course they are guilty and that is why they are poor".
January 19, 2018
This book is excellent at dissecting all of the racist, oppressive, illogical, and antediluvian aspects of our legal system. The writing of the book is very methodical - a catchy story of an ordinary person, a tangle or chronic pattern of contact with policing and being locked up, catastrophic fines and fees, and absurd traps and loopholes that seed doubt in any justice or peace being performed by our legal system. Story after story, Edelman gets the point across, clearly, how race, class, and also gender, are *not* treated equally in our country. My main critique is that for me, as a non-legal scholar or legal professional, I needed a crash course in the court system before understanding the jargon and points of nuance.
November 23, 2018
This book has some good data in it to support the harm done by criminalizing poverty. It also offers some examples of how to change policies and practices, but doesn’t really offer incentives to those in power to act on behalf of those experiencing poverty. “The right thing to do” only goes so far when changes would be costly to the powerful both in terms of lost jobs and lost government revenue. Savings in the long run seem to be impossible for politicians to contemplate. It made me wonder what WOULD prompt the powerful to act justly: surely something short of a revolution. I would have rated it higher if there hadn’t been disrespectful commentary about specific individuals: it was not necessary to make his main points.
February 4, 2020
When I started reading, I first wondered if his descriptions of the awful and unjust injustices put on poor people in the US. I started looking at his sources and found that his sources were abundant and and noted in 25 pages. In addition, the 259 pages of text is accompanied by a 16-page index. So, the stories he had to tell of situations across the country were sadly all too believable. In fact, there I read, the more depressing it became. I almost quit or at least laid it aside, but I am glad I went ahead and finished it because he does eventually get to reporting some positive things happening around the country that are downright encouraging.
January 5, 2018
This book is on a crucially important topic and presents it in an accessible way. The author also managed to capture many of the nuances and interlocking issues that combine to make being poor a crime in America. I want more people to read this book so that they hopefully understand the issue, but also so that they get inspired to fight back.
That being said, I wish this book had had a resource section appended to the end. The writing is also uneven and sections are not necessarily linked together well.
That being said, I wish this book had had a resource section appended to the end. The writing is also uneven and sections are not necessarily linked together well.
June 2, 2022
I really enjoyed this book but found that some of the information was a bit outdated due to the book being released in 2017. The book goes into how the poor is being criminalized in the US and I really agree. It talks about how once you are in the system and unable to pay due to being poor, you may not only end up spending time in jail or prison but the fines keep going up higher to make it even harder to get out of the criminal system which is not a fair system at all. I definitely recommend this book even though it being a bit out of date.
September 6, 2023
This is one of the best books I've read in a while. I stumbled upon it at the Chicago Public Library a few months ago. I picked it up again recently and couldn't put it down. The author states how we are wrongfully criminalizing the poor in our country and then offers several models of organizations using the restorative justice approach as to help bring the much needed reform to our broken criminal justice system. I highly recommend reading it. Definitely a five out of five stars. I believe that even faith leaders and lay persons would benefit greatly from reading this book as well.
June 7, 2018
My favorite part about this book is that it provides concrete examples of ways that individual people and organizations are making a concrete impact in the lives of the poor. Too many books fall into the trap of social criticism - eg overcriminalization of poverty is a problem - but this book goes one step further and says this is how these identified social problems can be concretely improved on a local/state/national level.
October 10, 2018
A bit like an epilogue to "The New Jim Crow" with its concentration branching out from incarceration to all the other forms of oppression suffered by the poor. Edelman has done great work in sharing the failures and the successes of our country's treatment of the poor, disenfranchised, and homeless. A sobering read with a glimmering ray of hope encompassed by all those doing good work to help and organize communities through education, financial empowerment and expungement.
July 2, 2019
I thought I knew pretty much all there was to know about this subject based on previous reading, but was surprised by new information, in particular the intricacies of the way our culture supports institutions that create problems discussed in this reflection. The book was published at the beginning of the Trump presidency, and I, along with the author wonder how this administration’s policies have confounded progress made in the recent past for economically disadvantaged members of society.
November 17, 2021
I listened to this audiobook all in one day while playing my cooking game. While the author brings up a lot of interesting finds and compelling personal stories, I can't get over how biased he is. Apparently all red states have issues with poverty and all blue states manage their funding perfectly? Give me a break. If that was the case then why do places like Skid Row exist? Anyways, overall it was a very interesting listen and I learned quite a bit.
July 28, 2023
I started this book in my mass incarceration/public health law class in the fall and wanted to finish it. It was interesting but very dry and dense. More of a resource (especially as someone in public health policy) rather than a read you can dive into. I listened to this and probably only absorbed about half of it lol. Nothing that I hadn’t already learned in grad school but might be more groundbreaking for someone in a different field.
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