Dickens Suddenly Relevant Again

There’s a great piece today in the NYT by Barbara Ehrenreich about the criminalization of the poor.

But will it be enough — the collision of rising prison populations that we can’t afford and the criminalization of poverty — to force us to break the mad cycle of poverty and punishment? With the number of people in poverty increasing (some estimates suggest it’s up to 45 million to 50 million, from 37 million in 2007) several states are beginning to ease up on the criminalization of poverty — for example, by sending drug offenders to treatment rather than jail, shortening probation and reducing the number of people locked up for technical violations like missed court appointments. But others are tightening the screws: not only increasing the number of “crimes” but also charging prisoners for their room and board — assuring that they’ll be released with potentially criminalizing levels of debt.

As more Americans become this kind of poor, maybe we’ll finally pay attention.

(h/t to Kate Bornstein for tweeting it)