Review by Booklist Review
The extortionate fines and fees charged to indigent defendants are notable even among the myriad injustices entrenched in the American criminal justice system. Pulitzer Prize--winning journalist Messenger explores the byzantine paths of so-called justice, in which poor defendants accept a guilty plea without realizing the plea will commit them to paying hundreds of dollars in fines and fees. If they are unable to pay these costs in full, they must attend a monthly court date to make small payments and explain why they can't pay more. If they miss a court date or miss a payment, they are sentenced to jail time, for which they are charged a new round of fees, sinking them deeper into debt. Messenger explores the stories of the many defendants--mostly Black in cities, mostly white in rural areas--whose lives were permanently ruined by their commission of crimes as minor as stealing mascara from a drugstore. Profit and Punishment is persuasive and enraging, a book that will stir readers from both sides of the aisle to support reform.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Messenger debuts with a heartbreaking study of how the American justice system is weighted against the poor. Arguing that there are in fact two justice systems ("one for people with money, one for people without"), Messenger profiles individuals who have spent years in jail, or have fallen into serious debt, because an initial misdemeanor charge led to massive fines and escalating fees that they couldn't pay. As a result of Republican promises to never raise taxes, Messenger notes, cities saw their budgets shrink alarmingly over the past few decades. To make up for this shortfall, municipalities relied on revenue from traffic tickets, parolee drug testing, jail boarding fees, and increased bail. To that end, Messenger outlines the stoyr of Brooke Bergen, who pled guilty to shoplifting an $8 tube of mascara in 2016 and was given a one-year suspended sentence, but violated her parole by missing a phone check-in. When she was released from jail, Bergen owed nearly $16,000 in fees. In some states, nearly half of inmates are jailed for probation violations such as failure to pay--a situation Messenger argues is a violation of the Constitution's guarantee of due process. Interweaving hard evidence with harrowing firsthand stories, this is a powerful call for change. (Dec.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Journalist and first-time author Messenger reported for years on the crushing impact of American criminal courts' legal fees and fines on poor people and won a Pulitzer Prize for this work. His book compiles stories of individuals who are tethered to the courts for no reason beyond the inability to pay these costs. A vicious cycle of legal debt, recurrent court appearances, failure-to-pay charges, and incarceration befalls people such as Brooke Bergen, whose theft of an $8 tube of mascara led to a year in jail and over $15,000 owed. Messenger argues that these disproportionate outcomes for impoverished litigants result from localities' strategy of raising capital through legal fees (in lieu of increasing taxes) and manifest the criminalization of poverty. Associated punitive practices (including cash bail, suspension of drivers' licenses, and the use of speeding and parking tickets as revenue streams) heighten the harm, he writes--the revocation of driving privileges being particularly punitive as it effectively stops people from working and decreases the possibility that debts will ever be paid. VERDICT Messenger persuasively, passionately exposes these injustices and their devastating consequences, points to recent bipartisan reform efforts, and calls for nationwide dismantling of this system of profit over justice. His book merits a wide readership among policymakers, legal practitioners, students, and general audiences.--Janet Ingraham Dwyer, State Lib. of Ohio, Columbus
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A Pulitzer Prize--winning columnist reports on how the American justice system has fallen critically out of balance. Expanding on his series of columns for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Messenger exposes the widening divide between lawful fairness and the poverty-stricken population in rural Missouri communities. The author scrutinizes the tragic ways judicial systems keep poor citizens in a cycle of jail sentences via overwhelming financial burdens placed on them, from the time of arrest and even after their sentence is served. In many areas, the author notes, municipal budgets are tight. Seeking to counterbalance revenue shortcomings and underfunding, counties depend on court-generated fees, regardless of whether defendants can afford them or not. Messenger movingly profiles three single mothers who share their jailhouse ordeals of being abused by "a judicial process that often serves as a backdoor tax collection system." Convicted of a misdemeanor shoplifting charge for stealing a tube of mascara, Brooke Bergen went to jail for a year and struggled with a minor parole violation that induced a hefty fine she struggles to pay off. Along with the others Messenger profiles, like a young Oklahoman cited for marijuana possession, Bergen now finds herself at the mercy of an a la carte court fee system, mercilessly "tethered to the judicial system for years." A tenacious watchdog journalist, the author also reports on a Missouri judge who schedules extrajudicial "payment review hearings" to ensure court costs are collected monthly from defendants who have finished serving their time. When they can't pay, or miss the hearing, their jail sentences are reinstated. Messenger explains how he was nearly blocked from witnessing Bergen's public hearings. He closes on a positive note, elaborating on the glimmers of hope in the form of a growing coalition advocating for reform and equality. Victims have begun fighting back with civil rights legislation and litigation against a system so blatantly skewed against poverty-stricken communities. An eye-opening, relevant, and heartbreaking account on the epidemic of criminalized poverty. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
