Thinking about the Poor

I have to qualify that I'm not an economist. My educational background is in sociology and criminal justice. I wish I knew more about economic theory and I wish I could make more compelling posts and thoughts about the subject.

I work in the criminal justice field. I work both in the court room and in local jails. My job is to present to judges on behalf of defendants to secure a bond for the defendant. I also do risk assessments, mental health assessments, and drug assessments on defendants charged with crimes.

It probably goes without saying but a lot of people who enter the criminal justice system in my area (Eastern Kentucky) are poor.

I do want to make the qualification (though its sad that it has to be made) that not all poor people come into contact with the criminal justice system. Not all poor people possess mental health problems or possess drug/alcohol addictions.

There are plenty of law abiding citicizens that are poor.

Since I do work with a certain population of poor (or indigent) people I have become even more concerned with issues of poverty.

I interview time and time again persons who are indigent. Often times poor people who are employed lose their job after they are arrested. If they cannot make bail they spend time in jail (even though they have yet to be convicted). Since they miss so many days of work due to being in jail they lose their job. It just seems wrong.

Is this "justice"?

Not only is the system set up to where poor people are less likely to make bond (which causes them to potentially lose their job) but they are also often subjected to absurd court costs if they have go on through the system and are eventually convicted.

Often times when persons are unable to pay their fines and court costs the person is re-arrested under a failure -to- pay- fine bench warrant.

Not only do these issues affect the poor but they also contribute to prison and jail over crowding.

I often wonder where is the humanity in the criminal justice system?

Granted I love my job and I feel like an advocate for the defendants I see, but I can't help but to question what I see. I see a system that is tough (and perhaps at times it should be) but I also see a system that keeps a person down when he or she is already down.

I do think there needs to be changes in the criminal justice system and sometimes these changes can be made by the judge.

Judges set bonds for defendants. As much as I try to help defendants bond out of jail I can't do that unless a judge believes in giving non-financial bonds. So the judges judicial philosophy is important. Also the judge's feelings toward the poor is also important.

I often question how popular social conservatives in our media characterize the poor (I am talking about those in television, magazine, and online articles). They often characterize the poor as lazy, uneducated, criminals, drug abusers, etc.

Often the poor is blamed for their own condition. Social conservatives have set a narrative that prevents a lot of people from criticising capitalism publicly. There has been a marriage between the religious right and Wall Street. To question our economic system is to be un-patriotic or un-American.

Our system is designed in a way that we'll always have the poor. The poor and the lower class serve a function structurally (as they do the jobs that most of us won't do or do not want to do). You don't have to be an instrumental marxist to understand that the structure of our economy demands the existance of the lower class.

So we have a narrative that makes it hard to question capitalism, we have a system in place that relies on the poor and the working poor, and we have a criminal justice system (that at least in my mind) helps keep the poor, poor.

We have this belief in the American Dream, but we have to understand that the dream is not obtainable to all persons. There are many hurdles that prevent this dream from being realized.

I wish we could challenge popular stereotypical notions of why the poor exist and what makes them poor. I wish we could take steps to alleviate burdens on the poor. Sure there are a lot of groups that offer assistance to the poor, but there are also ingrained institutional and structural hurdles put in place that maintains the poor (of course there are also individual variables that exist also).

So the problem of poverty is a complex one, and as I qualified above I'm not even close to an expert on this subject.

I do know that on a personal basis I come into contact with a lot of poor people through my work and my heart goes out to a lot of these folks. I often wonder what happens to these folks when they do bond out of jail and they have to struggle to find another job because they lost theirs simply because they could not afford to make bail.

These are just some of my general thoughts about the poor. What's yours?