Profit and punishment: how America criminalizes the poor in the name of justice

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Author:
Messenger, Tony
Language:
English
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Athens Drive Community - Adult Non-Fiction
362.556 MESSE
East Regional - Adult Non-Fiction has 2
362.556 MESSE
Eva H. Perry Regional - Adult Non-Fiction has 2
362.556 MESSE

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ISBN:
9781250274649

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Grouping Information

Grouped Work IDc038bfb5-d547-8816-c2a4-9b7b380d1740
Grouping Titleprofit and punishment how america criminalizes the poor in the name of justice
Grouping Authortony messenger
Grouping Categorybook
Grouping LanguageEnglish (eng)
Last Grouping Update2025-08-10 05:13:12AM
Last Indexed2025-08-12 05:15:49AM

Solr Fields

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0
accelerated_reader_reading_level
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author
Messenger, Tony
author_display
Messenger, Tony
available_at_catalog
Athens Drive Community
East Regional
Eva H. Perry Regional
Express Library Fayetteville St.
Fuquay-Varina Community
Green Road Community
Holly Springs Community
Morrisville Community
North Regional
Northeast Regional
Oberlin Regional
Richard B. Harrison Community
Southeast Regional
Southgate Community
Zebulon Community
collection_catalog
Adult Non-Fiction
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Athens Drive Community - Adult Non-Fiction
Cary Regional - Adult Non-Fiction
Duraleigh Road - Adult Non-Fiction
East Regional - Adult Non-Fiction
Eva H. Perry Regional - Adult Non-Fiction
Express - Fayetteville St. - Adult Non-Fiction
Fuquay-Varina Community - Adult Non-Fiction
Green Road Community - Adult Non-Fiction
Holly Springs Community - Adult Non-Fiction
Morrisville Community - Adult Non-Fiction
North Regional - Adult Non-Fiction
Northeast Regional - Adult Non-Fiction
Oberlin Regional - Adult Non-Fiction
Richard B Harrison - Adult Non-Fiction
Southeast Regional - Adult Non-Fiction
Southgate Community - Adult Non-Fiction
Zebulon Community - Adult Non-Fiction
display_description
"In Profit and Punishment, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist exposes the tragedy of modern-day debtors prisons, and how they destroy the lives of poor Americans swept up in a system designed to penalize the most impoverished. "His Pulitzer Prize winning series on debtors' prisons in Missouri made a serious difference in real people's lives and his book will be a must read for a nation seeking a bipartisan path forward on criminal justice reform." -Claire McCaskill, former US Senator and analyst for MSNBC 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. In the tradition of Evicted and The New Jim Crow, Messenger has written a call to arms, shining a light on a two-tiered system invisible to most Americans. He introduces readers to three single mothers caught up in this system: living in poverty in Missouri, Georgia, and South Carolina, whose lives are upended when minor offenses become monumental financial catastrophes. As these women struggle to clear their debt and move on with their lives, readers meet the dogged civil rights advocates and lawmakers fighting by their side to create a more equitable and fair court of justice. In this remarkable feat of reporting, Tony Messenger exposes injustice that is agonizing and infuriating in its mundane cruelty, as he champions the rights and dignity of some of the most vulnerable Americans"--
format_catalog
Book
format_category_catalog
Books
id
c038bfb5-d547-8816-c2a4-9b7b380d1740
isbn
9781250274649
last_indexed
2025-08-12T09:15:49.778Z
lexile_score
-1
literary_form
Non Fiction
literary_form_full
Non Fiction
local_callnumber_catalog
362.556 MESSE
owning_library_catalog
Wake County Public Libraries
owning_location_catalog
Athens Drive Community
Cary Regional
Duraleigh Road Community
East Regional
Eva H. Perry Regional
Express Library Fayetteville St.
Fuquay-Varina Community
Green Road Community
Holly Springs Community
Morrisville Community
North Regional
Northeast Regional
Oberlin Regional
Richard B. Harrison Community
Southeast Regional
Southgate Community
Zebulon Community
primary_isbn
9781250274649
publishDate
2021
publisher
St. Martin's Press
recordtype
grouped_work
subject_facet
Criminal justice, Administration of -- United States
Poor -- Government policy -- United States
Poverty -- Government policy -- United States
title_display
Profit and punishment : how America criminalizes the poor in the name of justice
title_full
Profit and punishment : how America criminalizes the poor in the name of justice / Tony Messenger
title_short
Profit and punishment
title_sub
how America criminalizes the poor in the name of justice
topic_facet
Criminal justice, Administration of
Government policy
Poor
Poverty

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record_details

Bib IdFormatFormat CategoryEditionLanguagePublisherPublication DatePhysical DescriptionAbridged
ils:757054BookBooksFirst editionEnglishSt. Martin's Press2021xxvi, 244 pages ; 25 cm

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