Blog Stage Five

Why are the majority of the people in our jails poor? This is a question I felt that I probably knew the answer to, but I when I thought about if someone would have asked me to explain why, I would just blubber out something that I didn’t really believe. Poor people aren’t genetically coded to be “bad”. They aren’t born to be criminals. Are they even criminals? Aren’t we all? I can almost guarantee you that no one I have ever met has NEVER broken ANY law. Hell, I broke the law on my way to school this morning because I was late, and I didn’t see any traffic cops behind me. We all do. So why isn’t everyone in jail evenly spaced out in terms of income?

Our criminal justice system grows every day. And our jails aren’t funded federally..(should they be?) .our local community funds our local jail. And I would say that Austin in general is doing quite alright for ourselves. But wayyyyyy off in all the little towns that this vast state has, those county jails are nothing but a cardboard box.

So many people that are in jail are there for REALLY dumb things. Like a broken tail light, or a suspended license. Once you’re in jail, you have to pay for any drug or lab testing, and then there is the issue of paying bail. Nancy Fishman said something really interesting to me in a NPR interview about our jail systems. She said, “The irony of bail is that its initial purpose was to make it possible for people to get out of jail, right? You couldn't be held in jail without a finding of guilt, or prior to a finding of guilt, without having an opportunity to get out. But the irony is that now bail really functions to hold people in. .... This means that if you have money to pay bail, you can get out no matter how dangerous you are, whereas if you are poor and all you've committed is a traffic violation, which is one of biggest drivers, frankly, of jail admissions in most places, you are going to sit in jail because $500 is a lot of money to you.”

So we are keeping in the poor people who really aren’t harshly damaging our daily lives. But rich people could commit some super dangerous crime and just be like “Here, money money money money….BYE!” Somehow that just doesn’t feel right.

I guess I’m not sure how we can solve this. Should the federal government be more involved with local jails?? Should bail be based on both your crime and your income?? Should everyone just be nice to each other and stop doing mean things?! :(