Where Being Poor is a Crime

You will be stunned to discover that it's not the region where snow shovels are used more than lawn mowers.

From the Institute for Southern Studies:

The Brennan Center for Justice and the American Civil Liberties Union released reports this week documenting the growing problem of criminal justice debt and the considerable costs it's imposing on communities, taxpayers and indigent people convicted of crimes. The following figures come from those reports, titled respectively "Criminal Justice Debt: A Barrier to Reentry" and "In for a Penny: The Rise of America's New Debtor Prisons."

Here's just one typical example:

Value of food that Gregory White, a homeless resident of New Orleans, was convicted of stealing: $39

Amount White was assessed in fines and fees for his crime: $339

Number of days White spent in jail because he was unable to pay his debt and couldn't afford the bus fare to complete community service: 198

Cost of his incarceration for the city: over $3,500

Read the whole thing.

One of the most outrageous and despicable consequences of imprisoning people for being poor is children losing support payments from incarcerated parents. Because people who are in jail find it extremely difficult to show up at work in order to earn an income.

Where it passes outrageous and approaches insanity is when courts punish parents who won't pay child support by throwing them in jail, where they can't pay child support.

The biggest advocates of this self-defeating system are, of course, blastocyst-worshippers who don't give a flying fuck for kids once they're born.

But forget bleeding-heart empathy; making poverty a crime is plain stupid. Incarcerating people for being poor just creates more poor people.

Cross-posted at They Gave Us A Republic ....