How the Juvenile Justice System Criminalizes the Poor

How the Juvenile Justice and Criminal Justice Systems Criminalize the Poor
Check out this brief, eloquent piece from the Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity site by Tracy Velázquez, Executive Director of the Justice Policy, on the ways that the criminal and juvenile justice systems disproportionately swallow up the poor -- for the same or similar crimes committed by more affluent people.

 
Why it Would be a Good Thing to Stop Criminalizing the Poor
Velázquez' number one recommendation to solve the problem (emphasis mine): 
The U.S. should provide meaningful access – regardless of ability to pay -- to community-based treatment that would ensure that people get the mental health and substance abuse treatment they need before they collide with the justice system; this would improve both public safety and individual life outcomes. A healthcare “safety net” that will cover formerly incarcerated individuals also will save states millions in reduced rates of recidivism and re-incarceration.
 
Stop Ignoring the Poor in Our Own Country
Along the same lines, you might also be interested in Bob Herbert's recent editorial in The New York Times marvelling at how the United States can have a debate about the merits of nation-building in Afghanistan, and yet "ignore the violence that is consuming the lives of boys and girls in Chicago," America’s third-largest city."
 
Related Post:

• Moving from Them to Us - Challenges in Reframing Violence Among Youth

(Photo, "Poverty is Not a Crime," by roland; reproduced under Creative Commons license.)