By the numbers -- Prologue: The poverty penalty -- Going to Court. The arrest -- Taxation by citation -- No sale of justice -- Failure to pay -- Debtors' Prison . Pay to stay -- The key to the jailhouse door -- Judges vs. judges -- Path to Freedom. The courthouse -- The capitol -- The Koch brothers meet the ACLU -- A tale of two letters -- Epilogue: Poverty is relative.
Summary:
"As a columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Tony Messenger has spent years in county and municipal courthouses documenting how poor Americans are convicted of minor crimes and then saddled with exorbitant fines and fees. If they are unable to pay, they are often sent to prison, where they are then charged a pay-to-stay bill, in a cycle that soon creates a mountain of debt that can take years to pay off. These insidious penalties are used to raise money for broken local and state budgets, often overseen by for-profit companies, and it is one of the central issues of the criminal justice reform movement."--Provided by the publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.