Page 58 - Impact: Collected Essays on the Threat of Economic Inequality
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with the long history of over-reliance on incarceration and implicit and explicit racial bias, has created a system that no longer recognizes the due process and equal protection that our Constitution guarantees for every citizen . Put simply, punishment should not hinge on one’s race or one’s wealth . When discussing punishment, Americans often resort to a common platitude that those who do wrong must “pay their debt to society .” But this phrase both legitimizes the use of wealth to determine punishment, and absolves us of responsibility for the wealth-based criminal justice system that we have created: The wealthy who do wrong incur less debt, pay their debt quickly, and never look back; while the poor remain trapped in the cycle: Jail . Default . Jail . Repeat . •
Impact: Collected Essays on the Threat of Economic Inequality
