Analysis Of The Rich Get Richer And The Poor Get Prison

Great Essays
Kelsee Kessel 12/1/16 “ The rich get richer and the Poor get prison. “
The book “ The rich get richer and the poor get prison “ by Jeffrey Reiman and Paul Leighton is an attempt to give the reader a look into the criminal justice system that the media and American government doesn’t. It highlights the bias of criminal charges against the poor as opposed to the well off and claims that from even before the process of arrest, trial, and sentencing, the system is biased against the poor. Whether that be in what it choosen to be treated as crime, who is conviced , length of sentencing or ignoring the numerous criminal acts of the rich. It also claims that there isn’t enough compassion or attention for the reasons for crime in poverty stricken neighborhoods but rather these people are looked down upon.
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It also states that the Criminal justice policy never focused on areas such as effective crime prevention , the harmful acts of the powerful , or eliminated economic bias because then it would have noticed that the policies in place were failing in these areas and do not generate effective demand for change. This results in a large amount of street crime from people who are inadequately protected or helped, and people who are inadequately protected from harms of the powerful. However steps and procedures may be taken to change the state of our criminal justice system. For it cannot hold individuals guilty of the injustice of breaking the law if that law itself supports and defends an unjust social

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