Poverty and Incarceration
Are we making it a crime to be poor, and is poverty a punishment for crime?
The Problem
Most persons behind bars in the U.S. were already struggling economically before incarceration. After release, returning citizens face innumerable obstacles that make poverty more likely. Are we making it a crime to be poor, and is poverty a punishment for crime?
The preferential option for the poor requires special attention and action directed toward the poor, vulnerable, and marginalized.
The Solution
Those who are struggling are not a menace to be contained but brothers and sisters who are owed solidarity and dignity.
The common good is threatened by poverty not because poor people are dangerous but because human dignity is violated. Incarceration cannot be a solution to our society’s failure to support and empower those in need.
Resources
On Poverty
Detaining the Poor: How money bail perpetuates an endless cycle of poverty and jail time
Report by the Prison Policy Institute, 2016
Prisons of Poverty: Uncovering the pre-incarceration incomes of the imprisoned
Report by the Prison Policy Institute, 2015
The Impact of Mass Incarceration on Poverty
Crime & Delinquency, Vol 59, Issue 4, 2013 | Robert DeFina and Lance Hannon
Prison Nation: The Warehousing of America's Poor
Edited by Tara Herivel and Paul Wright
Companion website for The Rich Get Richer & the Poor Get Prison, 11th edition (2017)
Jeffrey Reiman and Paul Leighton