Criminalization of the Poor

The current structure of the North Carolina criminal justice system routinely imprisons people for no reason other than their inability to pay a court-imposed debt. And the failure to pay often results in the imposition of even more fines, which results in greater debt and hardship. Our criminal justice system treats poor people more severely than those with means, causing poor people to suffer greater criminal consequences than those with means who commit the same offenses. On this show, we talked with Laura Holland, Staff Attorney at the NC Justice Center, and Quisha Mallette, Community Advocate for Reinvestment Partners, about the extreme challenges faced by low-income people in dealing with the criminal justice system in North Carolina, and how the system has resulted in the criminalization of poverty and the unequal treatment of the poor in this state.