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

by Tony Messenger, Karen Chilton (Narrator)

Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Messenger offers the first humane, journalistic expose of an American tragedy: Modern-day debtor's prisons and how they've destroyed the lives of poor Americans.

"His Pulitzer Prize winning series on debtors' prisons in Missouri made a serious difference in real people's lives and his book will be a must read for a nation seeking a bipartisan path forward on criminal justice reform."
—Claire McCaskill, former US Senator and analyst for MSNBC

Profit and Punishment is the most comprehensive look at the criminalization of poverty in the U.S., joining a growing and popular genre that is making a difference. It is Charged meets Evicted, focusing on that touchstone issue of the criminal justice reform movement: the insidious use of fines and fees to raise money for broken government budgets off the backs of the poor, and the partnership those governments have formed with for-profit companies that are getting rich on the backs of people incarcerated for minor crimes.

In a feat of exceptional reporting, Profit and Punishment reveals a familiar reality to the nation's poor, anchored by the stories of three single mothers living in poverty, one in Oklahoma, one in Missouri, and one in South Carolina, who are abused by a judicial system more focused on debt collection than public safety.

All over the country, similar schemes are criminalizing the vulnerable and the poor, with the full support of politicians in both parties. The geography is Missouri, South Carolina, and Oklahoma. The story is American.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press.

“When Tony Messenger writes about social justice issues, he is relentless in his pursuit of truth, particularly when the victims of a broken criminal justice system are disproportionately people of color.”
—DeRay McKesson, host of Pod Save the People and author of On the Other Side of Freedom

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Social Justice, History, Law, Audiobook, Sociology

9 pages, Audiobook

First published December 7, 2021

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my youth, I generally believed the tropes about poverty - that with hard work, it was possible to lift yourself out of it, all that was required was the will to do what was necessary. Over the years since, I've come to understand just how naïve that idea is, and what vicious trap poverty is. It is expensive to be poor in so many ways that people with money have trouble comprehending. When people are barely living from paycheck to paycheck, they often can afford to live near the giant supermarkets, with their vast selections and lower prices. Instead, they live in lower cost neighborhoods, where their groceries come from tiny stores with limited selections and higher prices. They can't afford a new, reliable car, so they buy a beat up used car, and then face a ongoing string of repair bills. Their decision making is focused on their current cash situation, which causes them to create even more expenses in the future. It is a vicious cycle that leaves so many trapped.

But even with that growing awareness of the ways poverty traps people, I didn't appreciate the role that the courts play in this cycle. Sure, I was aware that court fees are added to fines (I've paid traffic and parking fines and seen the fees, albeit many years ago), but I had no idea of the extent to which these fees have become a source of revenue for local governments and how the create yet another cost that impacts the poor in ways that the well off don't experience.

Those politicians who campaign on a platform of "law and order" would tell you that the system is fine, that those suffering under it are criminals who deserve what they get. But when you dig into the specifics, that argument doesn't hold up well. So many poor people end up pleading guilty because it gets them *out* of jail. They can't afford bail, so they sit in jail until their court date. Then they are told that their sentence would be "time served" if they plead guilty, meaning they can go home, so they do. But here's the vicious twist - they will be billed for the time they spent in jail, and if they don't pay the bill (which they very often can't), they risk being sent back to jail, which only serves to increase the amount they owe. It is a vicious cycle that is virtually impossible to escape. Compound this by suspending the driver's licenses of those who can't pay, and now they will struggle to get and hold a job, adding to their economic struggles.

The author is a journalist, making this book easy to read, driven by the compelling narratives of the people he profiles. He shows how the most trivial of infractions - shoplifting an $8 item or speeding - can be the trigger that springs the trap for so many, burying people in debt that they will never be able to pay and which becomes an ongoing threat to their liberty. And the content of this book is well documented. The author provides forty-five pages of notes for just 190 pages of text, showing just how much research he has done.

For those who want to truly understand the challenges faced by those who live in (or at the edge of) poverty, this book is an important insight into the ways public policy can make it impossible for people to escape their economic situation.

[Sara Broad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tony Messenger's "Profit and Punishment" is a nonfiction work about the cycle of punishment, incarceration, fines, and endless court appearances that essentially rob people of any chance of overcoming past mistakes, large or small. As Messenger highlight, the focus of the book is on white people in rural areas of Missouri, which are the parts of the state that rely most heavily on money obtained through punishment to obtain funds for courts, sheriffs, and police. Urban areas have a different funding system and are also more lenient toward enforcing the collections of fines and debts owed by the mostly poor people who are subjected to the criminal justice system. One shining light of this book is that Messenger's journalism brings more public attention to the way that people are buried by the fines that they owe and the near impossibility of any positive outcome. Still, convincing legislatures to make any permanent changes to the laws that control this cycle of punishment is easier said than done, especially when this is the main source of funding for rural areas. "Profit and Punishment" is an important read about an often overlooked issue.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you thought, as I did, that debtors’ prisons were something out of 19th century England and books by Charles Dickens, this book will be enlightening for you. My conception of why someone might end up in jail over and over again is completely flipped on it’s head. I grew up in rural Missouri so this all hits close to home. The author sure did Show Me.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

According to this incredible book, people across the political spectrum agree on one issue: we need criminal justice reform like YESTERDAY. And yet we so rarely can manage to get it done. This book delves a little bit into why.

Having read both The New Jim Crowe, Evicted and Locking Up Our Own, this book rounded out a thesis I've already come to understand well: the criminalization of poverty. Not only that, but that we first make poor people and then punish them for being poor. It's a vicious cycle, but one that will persist so long as there are those who are enriched by it.

And in this case, the enrichened (professional editor: licensed to make up words as often as I damn well please) are rural town governments and police forces. See, when you cut taxes down to the bone, that doesn't necessarily mean a local government doesn't still need money to cover its operating expenses. So it has to make up the money somewhere. And through his extensive reporting, Messenger shows that those local governments make up the money in court and legal fees. Essentially, it's a selective tax on the poorest among us—those most unlikely to be able to pay. And if they can't pay their court debt for a traffic violation or a missed alimony payment, they go to jail... where they are charged for their stay.

So in many places we have a system where the poor are punished for being poor and put into a position where they are even less able to pay their debts and bills and become not-poor. Oh, you couldn't pay your court fees? Great, we'll throw you in jail where you have no way of making any money. Then, we'll saddle you with a bill for room and board for your jail stay, pushing you even deeper into debt. Fail to make regular payments on that debt? Back to jail you go! And so the cycle continues.

Messenger's reporting has led to the repeal of some of these inefficient, wasteful, fucked up, prejudiced practices. Because when you have the facts laid out in front of you, the issue is criminally fucked up. I hope he and the activist groups working on the problem are successful in ending this backdoor tax penalty on the poor for good and all.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go rage-scream into a pillow.

[Nichole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tony Messenger’s “Profit and Punishment: How America Criminalizes the Poor in the Name of Justice” is an unflinching exploration of the dark corner of America where capitalism meets criminal justice. A clear-eyed and often devastating look at economic injustice in the United States judicial system, “Profit and Punishment” gives a human face to the thousands upon thousands of Americans caught up in a system that forces them into a downward spiral of further imprisonment and deeper poverty. It should be required reading for all Americans, regardless of their political leanings.

(Disclaimer: The author is a friend and former co-worker.)

[Josee Proulx · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received this book for free through Goodreads giveaways for a review
I am honestly struggling to get through this book.
The subject is very intriguing to me - however the way it was written did not capture my attention.
I had a hard time focusing and I dont think it was very well written.
The information was dry to say the least. Informative but dry.

[Luke Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent piece of investigative journalism by a man who, being a St Louis citizem myself, I am rather familiar with. In this book, Messenger gives example after example of the way in which court fines and fees are used to fill the coffers of everything from local governments to police retirement funds. Messenger goes on to show how this is both illegal and unconstitutional, and yet, is still continueing in many parts of Missouri (and other states, too).

So much of what Mesenger lays out seems so straightforward I was at times astonished there was any debate on the matter. If someone is poor and can't pay their legal fines and fees, how is returning them jail to rack up even more fines and fees going to solve anything? I learned a lot too. I was unaware that these debts were often sold to for-profit collection agencies. Or that our parole system, was run by for-profit companies. Don't know why I should be surprised, I know I've had these rose colored glasses on too long.

An enjoyable read, with lots of people featured giving it a very human touch. The fact that Messenger chose to feature mostly white Americans, as he thought (re: knew) that would be more likely to catch the legislatures' and the public's attention, is disheartening but again, shouldn't come as a surprise. Missouri's got a lot of problems right now: a publicity hungry Senator who supports the Big Lie and the violence of January 6th, 2021, overcrowded prisons for both men and women, high amounts of meth and other drug use by its citizens, and the all too common increasing division between the haves and the have nots. No, these are not exclusively Missouri problems, far from it. Still, I'm glad Messenger is here to bring them to light.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know that I'll be able to finish this book. Not that its a bad book but that I've known since about high school age that America had a war on the Black and poor. I'm Black but only minimally above poor. This war was always disguised as a war on drugs, mass incarceration, or urban renewal. I became an economist and fought the good fight behind numbers and graphs, This book, in the first pages, puts faces on those numbers. Like the woman who stole a 5 dollars mascara, spent a year in jail and left with an almost 20,000 dollar fine. It cost you more than you can afford to be poor. I've compartmentalized the suffering of America's poor and this book will put it front and center. And ask why I haven't done more to be true to my high school social justice dreams.

[Alvaro Francisco Hidalgo Rodriguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

The effect that our bail system and the ways that places in America have essentially made “law enforcement” a source of revenue is overwhelmingly affecting the poor, keeping them from ever possibly escaping the grips of both poverty and criminality. This book presents proof of this in a very clear way.

[sydney s · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would be lying if I said this wasn’t a confirmation bias type of read, but it is good + important nonetheless. I’ve always thought that bail is the stupidest thing ever, but it is so much deeper than that. Courts profit off of indigent defendants who can’t afford to make payments on time by adding fees for said missed payments, some exorbitant fees exist solely to raise money for government officials/entities without having to impose taxes on citizens, some municipalities CHARGE people to be in jail - as if they want to be there. It’s awful and that’s not the end of it. The author does a good job of faithfully portraying real lives and giving readers a sense of how cyclical poverty is for people. To anyone who thinks that poverty is a choice or somehow a result of not “working hard”, they should look to this book, and into themselves as to why they believe that false belief. Shoplifting an 8 dollar mascara should not cause someone to incur 2000+ dollars in jail/court costs, why do you think they were shoplifting in the first place?

This is more of a 4.5 star than a true 4. I think there are moments where the book repeated itself, a common pitfall of books like this where everything leads back to capitalism failing. Aside from that, it’s great. I listened to this on audiobook and I recommend it to anyone interested in civil rights or criminal law! Everyday I become more and more pre-law

[Ben Sicnolf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good, incredibly infuriating book. Kind of expands upon I Can't Breathe by Matt Taibbi (one of the best books I've ever read), using many more (far less heralded or dire) situations, in that it shows how much is set up to punish the poor over and over again simply because they do not have money and how much harassment from law enforcement can ruin lives. Learned a few new things, such as how much people are forced to pay for the time that they spend in jail (what??). Bail reform has been my number one issue for years and this obviously goes deeply into that so I'm sure I was in an echo chamber nodding my head while reading, but I do not believe anyone could read these stories and think that we have a fair system of law in the United States. Sickening.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The shocking way the poor get trapped in the legal system. Very relevant now in NYS because we’ve had bail reform and increased crime. While this book mainly deals with fines and bail, NYS has given return tickets to people who are caught with illegal weapons and domestic violence, which makes me worry. The defendant apparently also gets namers, addresses a
and phone numbers of accusers and I’ve been told this definitely prevents people from filing police reports due to fear of retaliation. Obviously we don’t want people to be stuck as debtors but we also want a safe place where people can report crimes and not be victimized again.

[Jessie Atwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

“most of the people i’ve written about in this book, people who grew up poor, and then were made poorer by a criminal justice system seeking to extract money from them in unconstitutional ways, tell me that they never really thought of themselves as poor. they just lived in the circumstances that were dealt them, and they made do.”

thank you Tony Messenger for this book. Thank you for your hard work in bringing justice to those. thank you for your research in this ongoing battle and helping those. Thank you for sharing the stories of just few who have been a victim of this endless cycle.

[Kristen Keeling · Rating 4 out of 5]

“When I first started writing about people in jail or prison, I would regularly get emails from some readers who lacked any empathy for their plight. They shouldn’t have broken the law. They got what’s coming to them. But over time, many of those same readers began to see through a person’s initial mistake—shoplifting, taking drugs, losing one’s temper, driving too fast—and see themselves, or the people they know, in my characters’ stories.”

[Jibraun · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 stars. A good, insightful read on the pernicious and systematic oppression of functionally debtors’ prisons in poor urban areas and rural areas. I only marked this down to four stars because I don’t really think there was enough here to merit a book. It becomes repetitive at page 120 of a short 188 page book.

[Ian Morel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Generally helpful book on the injustices of the justice system.

The tone and writing are clear. There are some helpful stories but nothing super revolutionary. Definitely recommend for people that are unfamiliar with the systems abuse of the poor.

[Andréa]

Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Anna Bea · Rating 4 out of 5]

a must-read (or listen) for everyone in my opinion. also wasn’t expecting a little hometown cameo but hello, columbia 🫠

[Tim Roegner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eye opening stories of how the criminal justice system extorts money out of the poor and throws them into a downward spiral from which many of them cannot escape.

[audrey marquand · Rating 2 out of 5]

erm. it was real boring. i skimmed the last 13 pages because i couldn't finish it. it gets two stars instead of one just because it mainly talks about north county st. louis 🙏

[Ida]

I no longer put star ratings on my reviews.

That said, everyone in the United States needs to read this book. Tony Messenger shows just how stacked the deck is against the poor in the country. In many counties in a variety of U.S. states, people are kept in poverty for years or even decades by a "justice" system that bleeds them dry after minor infractions. First they're arrested, then can't afford cash bail so are left in jail, probably lose their jobs, finally are released and discover they're being charged massive amounts of money in court costs and board bills. Often these funds are funneled to the very people making the arrests and handing out the sentences -- a sheriff's retirement fund, for example. Often court fines and fees go up when taxes on the rich go down, because the money still needs to come from somewhere and it's easier to extort the poor. I was haunted by every story.

One that sticks in my mind was about a boy of 17 who stole a lawn mower, but later returned it. Nevertheless he was arrested. Ten years later, he was a man of 27 who was still trying to pay down his court and jail charges, showing up in front the judge every single month to declare how much he was able to pay, while struggling to feed his family.

Messenger also provides information about the various ways in which judges end up in their jobs, which was eye opening. And here's a good news/bad news facet of the story. There are bipartisan efforts in several states to end the practice of excessive court fees and board bills. Lawmakers from the both sides of the aisle have taken up the issue. However, the poor do not have lobbyists and the bail bond industry and the sheriffs' associations do. So it's a real struggle to make change. There have been successes in some areas. I hope there are more coming down the pike.

[Komi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sociology books are my jam. I learned a lot from this book. I knew the justice system was corrupt but I wasn't aware of the fees that were saddled upon people who had spent time in prisons. I had always been under the assumption that if you got arrested, it was tax payers who were carrying the full load. Nope. Besides people who committed crimes being arrested, getting their records smeared, they are ostracized from society and forced to pay back debt that would be hard for anyone trying to make ends meet. You have to choose whether to pay your (in)justice system fines, go back to jail, not have enough food, or miss work due to lack of gas fuels. It's unimaginable what we put ppl through.


One thing I liked about this book is how it illustrates how not just black people get royally screwed but those in the rural communities as well who are poor. Being poor is a struggle for just about anyone but adding the racial component to it takes it to another level.

Cops are needed but due to the budgets required by local and state governments they try to find ways to increase the coffers and reserves. Shit is wild!! Reform is much needed.


Why is it so hard for us, as humans and Americans, to just treat each other with decency. Smh.

[Andrew Pineda · Rating 5 out of 5]

The writing is earnest, concise, and maybe a teeny bit repetitive. The content is compelling, challenging, and very well explained. Messenger takes his time laying out just how bleak the topic of this book is and then offers an optimistic path towards a better future. A quick, impactful read.

[Joshua Hedlund · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important book. I thought I was familiar with all the general contours of the criticisms of the criminal justice system in America, especially post-Ferguson (see Just Mercy, The New Jim Crow, Locking Up Our Own, Ending Overcriminalization and Mass Incarceration...), but Tony Messenger shifts the spotlight slightly away from urban policing to focus on courts - specifically court costs, many of which I never even knew existed. Largely involving Missouri, but expanding across a patchwork of states, Messenger reveals inhumane and inefficient insanities, such as counties that charge people for their time in jail (including pre-trial time, only accrued by those who couldn’t afford bail in the first place), and then jail them again if they are unable to pay their bills in a vicious and wasteful cycle, along with many other egregious fines and fees and the cascading effects they have on poor people. More than just a screed against the system, however, Messenger also describes encouraging efforts at fixing many of these unjust practices (as well as discouraging counter-efforts and pushback). The personal stories of sympathetic figures keep the issues from becoming abstract statistics, although it can be hard to keep track of the multiple storylines, and this series-of-columns-turned-into-a-book could have benefited from a little more editing.

In recent years, much of the criminal justice conversation has become polarized, somehow associated as something "liberal" or "woke" or only of interest to African-Americans. Messenger deftly sidesteps such compartmentalization, focusing on poor white and black victims alike, as well as focusing on the many bipartisan and sometimes even Republican-led legislative efforts (beginning with Missouri's own Eric Schmitt) to end some of the biggest government abuses. Unfortunately, Messenger's own political bias seeps through a little too much in his writing (as much as he mentions Republican partners, he only barely seems to grasp their motivations), and he risks alienating the other side of the aisle before they realize the connections he's earnestly trying to make (I would have suggested he leave out a confusing nod in the radical direction that calls for undefined "reforms that will strike a match to the current wealth-based realities of the American justice system" and "burn it down"). Still, I hope conservatives will give this book a chance, for despite the partisan rhetoric of our times, criminal justice, as Messenger rightly recognizes, continues to be a rare area of huge common ground, in the many intersections of rural and urban poverty, empathetic compassion, theological second chances, fiscal responsibility, constitutional rights, and plain ol' decency.

[Chris Boutté · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my opinion, this is a must-read book. Something that occupies a lot of space in my brain is the lack of empathy we have for those who have criminal records. This most likely comes from the fact that I’m a recovering drug addict and alcoholic who should have gone to jail dozens of times, but I was somehow lucky enough to never have it happen. The only thing that separates me from many of the people who have criminal records is nothing more than luck.

In this book, Tony Messenger puts a spotlight on how we criminalize the poor. My theory is that once someone has a criminal record, we lose all empathy for them because we think, “Welp, they did something wrong, and this is the punishment.” At the same time, we fail to acknowledge (or purposely don’t) the fact that many of us have done something criminal and just didn’t get caught. The book highlights how those who don’t make as much money or are flat out poor are criminalized more than anyone else in America just because they can’t afford bail, fines, and fees.

There’s one part in the book where someone the author interviewed in the book describes it as extortion. Extortion is defined as “the crime of obtaining something from someone, especially money, by using force or threats.” When a court tells someone who leaves jail that if they can’t afford to pay their fines and fees, they’re going back to jail, there’s no other word than extortion to describe what’s happening to them.

The book is mainly interviews with people who have been victims of this as well as with people who are trying to change the system. You’ll learn about corrupt counties that understand that society lacks empathy for these people and do criminal things to pad their own pockets by punishing the poor even more.

If I had one criticism of this book, it’s that it could probably be 25%-40% shorter. At a certain point, you have a very clear picture of how screwed up our system is, so it just seems like we didn’t need more examples and stories. I can definitely understand why the author thought that each one was important in it’s own way, so take my criticism with a grain of salt. Overall, you definitely need to read this book.

[Yenta Knows · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no idea that some jails charge inmates for their “stay.” Jails are not hotels! We who are comfortably middle class pay taxes to support a criminal justice system that is supposed to punish wrongdoers but ALSO rehabilitate those who’ve made a few mistakes.

It appears that the practice of charging people for their time in jail (and for various “services” related to jail and probation) began after the Great Recession of 2008, when municipal tax collections, in particular, diminished dramatically.

But what genius came up with the idea of charging desperately poor people for “room and board while in jail”? Or such silly things as the drug tests required as a probation condition? Heck, even Robin Hood knew you had to rob from the rich. Because the poor don’t have money.

The most compelling argument against the practice was stated somewhat in passing: one study found that a county expended $1.17 for every $1 collected. Gee, keep that up and you can drive your county into bankruptcy.

It appears that the idea of making people “pay for their crimes” had most appeal in thinly populated rural counties. I can see the appeal to the hypocritical, vindictive masses who are taken in by politicians promising to get “tough on crime.”

As this book shows, the scheme does far more harm than good. Even some Republican lawmakers were able to see that eventually.

My only complaints were:
The book appears to be a collection of the author’s newspaper stories. Because each story has to stand alone, there’s a good deal of repetition.

The author is the kind of guy who wants to discover compelling personalities and to tell their stories. Nothing wrong with that. I just wanted a little more geek-style data. Because he’s not a data guy, I got no idea as to how many individuals are affected, how much money wasted, etc.

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned a lot from this book. Messenger fervently debunks the stereotypes about the relationship between poverty and crime in the United States and unveils how the structure of the criminal justice system perpetuates poverty. Messenger investigates "pay to play" systems, which he deems "taxation by citation," and explains how the state both forces criminal defendants to shoulder the administrative costs of the judicial system and uses crime to fund government pensions and bonuses. All it takes is getting caught in a predatory speed trap, or mistakenly leaving a store with an unpaid item, and then you have to pay to go to court, try to pay for bail or try to pay the fine. If you can't pay, you go to jail, after which you have to pay to go to jail, pay to be on probation, pay to be drug tested (even if you're not charged with a drug crime), or else go back to jail if you don't pay, and then pay for having gone to jail again, and the cycle restarts. All of these payments are required of a criminal defendant despite the fact that they already pay taxes to fund these judicial systems. Messenger explains how these unjust practices target disenfranchised communities and trap poor defendants in a cycle of debt that they cannot escape, creating a system of perpetual punishment that exacerbates existing socioeconomic disadvantages. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone, and especially to those who work in the legal world.

[Desi Wolff-Myren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Profit an Punishment is a fascinating examination of the court system, court fees, and how the cycle of poverty plays in to this. Tony Messenger wrote editorial columns highlighting the plight of several impoverished, Missourians who were stuck in a cycle and tangle of poverty, the law, and the court system. His columns caught the attention of many people. other people stuck in the same system, lawmakers, and politicians. He helped bring to light issues that thousands of people across the country are facing, and helped make change happen.

As an average American citizen, I have assumed many things about our judicial system. However, I never realized that extent to which the judicial system preys on poor people, both Black and white. Messenger brings up the issues of racial inequities throughout his book, but really this book is about white Americans who are struggling in a system that is assumed to prop them up.

I learned a helluva lot from this book, and if I were ever to teach a social justice class, I would use parts of this book. Hell, I want to share parts of this book with my low-income students to show them about the realities of living in America.

I highly recommend this book. Well researched, well written. Nicely done!

[Dennis Hogan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished Profit and Punishment: How America Criminalizes the Poor in the Name of Justice by Tony Messenger. While working for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 2015 Messenger and colleague Kevin Horrigan were named finalists for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.They were cited "for editorials that brought insight and context to the national tragedy of Ferguson, MO, without losing sight of the community's needs.” In 2019, Messenger won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary "for bold columns that exposed the malfeasance and injustice of forcing poor rural Missourians charged with misdemeanor crimes to pay unaffordable fines or be sent to jail.” This book is an outgrowth of his 2019 reporting of the criminalizing of the poor. I learned in this book that many states charge defendants convicted of crime for the cost of their imprisonment, that courts in some jurisdictions put poor people in jail for inability to pay court costs, that poor people are routinely jailed for inability to pay cash bail for minor offenses, that many jurisdictions have increased court fines and fees to cover costs that low tax states are unwilling to pay for by any other means. This is a shocking story of oppression of the poor, black and white but mostly people of color.