Rewards and Punishments: How America Criminalizes the Poor in the Name of Justice
About This Novel
A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist exposes the tragedy of a modern-day debtor's prison: After stealing $8 in mascara, she was held for a year and owed the government five figures in "jail costs." St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Tony Mesenger has spent years chronicling in town and municipal courts how poor Americans are convicted of misdemeanors and then saddled with hefty fines and fees. If they cannot pay, they are often sent to prison and asked to pay for accommodation, and the cycle quickly builds up a mountain of debt that can take many years to pay off. These insidious punitive measures, used to plug shortfalls in local and state budgets, often overseen by for-profit corporations, are one of the core issues of the criminal justice reform movement. ? The book profiles three single mothers trapped in the system: living in Missouri, Oklahoma, and South Carolina, whose worlds are turned upside down after minor infractions turn into massive financial and personal disasters, leaving them struggling to pay off debt and move on with their lives. Meanwhile, tenacious civil rights advocates and lawmakers are fighting alongside them to create a fairer and more equitable justice system.
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