Not A Crime To Be Poor: The Criminalization of Poverty in America

(Hardback)

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Awarded "Special Recognition" by the 2018 Robert F. Kennedy Book & Journalism Awards

Finalist for the American Bar Association's 2018 Silver Gavel Book Award

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Just Mercy

author Matthew Desmond calls "a powerful investigation into the ways the United States has addressed poverty . . . lucid and troubling"

, in fact Ferguson is everywhere: the debtors' prisons of the twenty-first century. The anti-tax revolution that began with the Reagan era led state and local governments, starved for revenues, to squeeze ordinary people, collect fines and fees to the tune of 10 million people who now owe $50 billion.

Nor is the criminalization of poverty confined to money. Schoolchildren are sent to court for playground skirmishes that previously sent them to the principal's office. Women are evicted from their homes for calling the police too often to ask for protection from domestic violence. The homeless are arrested for sleeping in the park or urinating in public.

columnist Bob Herbert writes, "If there is one essential book on the great tragedy of poverty and inequality in America, this is it."

Reviews

Praise for Not a Crime to Be Poor:
"A hard-hitting argument for reform. . . . An impassioned call for an `overarching movement for justice."
Kirkus Reviews

Praise for Peter Edelmans So Rich, So Poor:
"Peter Edelman brings blinding lucidity to a subject usually mired in prejudice and false preconceptions."
Barbara Ehrenreich

"If there is one essential book on the great tragedy of poverty and inequality in America, this is it. Peter Edelman is masterful on the issue. With a real-world grasp of politics and the economy, Edelman makes a brilliantly compelling case for what can and must be done."
Bob Herbert

"A competent, thorough assessment from a veteran expert in the field."
Kirkus Reviews

Author Bio

Peter Edelman is the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Law and Public Policy and the faculty director of the Center on Poverty and Inequality at Georgetown University Law Center. Edelman was a top advisor to Senator Robert F. Kennedy and served in President Bill Clintons administration. He is the author of So Rich, So Poor (The New Press) and lives in Washington, D.C.