The story “The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison” examines a process in which the lower class people or the poor people get prison. In chapter 3, the author argued that the laws fail to forbid or ban much serious harm caused by the financially powerful people. The criminal laws ignore these wealthy people, but the poor people with low status and finances get arrested, charged, get prison for a long period than the members of the upper class.
The author in this chapter discusses the characteristics of income and education density of the lower class and provides a comparison between the crimes of the poor and the wealthy. Mostly the people were sent to prison based on racial differences as the African Americans were excessively poor. One thing that must be cleared to all is that it is not our view that the poor people are all guiltless victims who suffer the persecution of the rich people but it is said in the book by the author that “the poor are arrested and punished by the criminal justice system much more frequently than their contribution to the crime problem would warrant” (Reiman).
Both black people and white people commit crimes but only one of them is not answerable for any of their crimes and the ones who are convicted and arrested are the poor people who do not get a chance to enjoy favoritism by the government and by the other authorities. Another argument begins on the fact that police usually use to arrest those people who have the least power or those who cannot save themselves from the devilish practices of the police and these are the people with less finances and low social status.
Further, the third chapter concludes about the kinds of crime which are not committed by the poor people, but by the upper class people are never charged or convicted by the criminal justice system, and these types of crime are known as the white-collar crime which is not street crimes but are now spreading and are less convicted and if in some case they are prosecuted they are sentenced easily and are released very soon from the prison on bail.
This could only be possible by having a lot of finances to give the bail which is not affordable by the poor people due to which they have to face a lot of mistreatment for small crimes. Those upper class people who commit major crimes and are serious criminals they are rarely proven guilty because they are seldom questioned about their crimes so it is not surprising that poor are convicted more for the crime.
The next section discusses the point that the toughest sentences are given to lower class defendants while the better class of lawbreakers can make their way out by relaxed punishments and stay out of prisons. This chapter also discusses the conflict of improvement like sentencing criminals for committing crimes related to drugs that have devastating impact on the minority communities in certain cases. For example, the white collar criminals’ which costs public a loss of billions of dollars must get tough prison or should be sentenced for long time but still they remain less convicted or receive lighter sentence as compared to the poor people convicted of common type of crimes such as shop lifting etc.
The criminal justice system, however, that does not provide justice to the poor people and does not even protect the lower class society is still functioning. While pointing out at the well-off people who receive benefits from the present system, the author does not argue on this conspiracy but instead he says it as a part of the “historical inertia”.
The theory that explains the determination of the failure of the criminal justice policy, suggests that all those people who enjoy the power to change the system, keep on committing harm, gather a lot of wealth without penalty, while the nation continues to pay attention on small street crimes and sentence the poor, minor criminals. Summing up the situation and agreeing with Reiman, Juliet Casper comments that the “rich are treated more gently by the legal system than the poorer nonviolent criminals” (p. 835).
The author also discusses about the principles of criminal justice system which expresses that an individual carries the burden of full answerability and is also responsible for, whereas inequality and other common conditions that contribute towards crime are invisible in the discussions. The author also speaks about the role of policies which could contribute to successive failure. Tifft, Maruna and Elliot too agree with the author’s view as they criticize the judicial system for favoring the powerful and victimizing the weak. They write about “the grotesque inequalities in our society, the massive structural impediments that keep the poor in prison while the rich get richer” (p. 397).
The criminal justice system also tried to divert the attention from itself by focusing on the person as convicted criminals, which conveys us the message that our associations are politically nonaligned, and they remain protected from serious inspection. But paying attention to individual criminals does not solve the problem of injustice. The authors also stress on the fact that despite of the common goals shared amongst individuals, they adopt different ways to achieve them. Some get involved in the use of illegal means to achieve legal goals.
In chapter four, it is also highlighted that laws are typically for those who have the power and control the resources the upper class and the interests of lower class are ignored when making legislations. Numerous events reveal how the criminal justice system is used to guard the importance of the higher class people against the lower class. There are a lot of street crimes from which people are unprotected which are harmful for their lives too.
The author also argues on a fact that the modern society is giving birth to street crimes now which are increasing day by day. Though, these crimes can be put to an end if high quality education and job training are provided to the lower class people also. The author also expresses that a criminal justice system is a fair system unless it remains equal for all the people of society both lower class or the upper class, and equally punishes all the people who cause violation, and are dangerous for the people living in a society.
The author near the end suggests that all the illegal resources that breed the crimes and criminals must be nipped in the bud. The sale of illegal drugs must be finished as well as the treatment of addiction should be medical. The main point was that if these harmful drugs would have been legal than there would have been less people under the control of the criminal justice system. Therefore, the drugs which are harmful and addictive to the people should be kept illegal and if someone is becoming addicted to it then he must be treated as a patient rather than criminals.
To improve the criminal justice system it is necessary to fulfill the aim of promoting justice in the society. To make laws equal for everyone and that the counseling must be fair with everyone and judges must justify their decision before they sentence anyone to any charge or prison. Thus, it is concluded with a statement that a system cannot be fair unless it treats everyone equally and proves each and every individual guilty of breaking the law and being illegal. Also, the distribution of wealth must be equal for all so that criminals may decrease in number.
Works Cited
Casper, J. M. “Recent Books.” Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 85.3 (2995): 834-835.
Reiman, Jeffrey H. The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison. New York: Allyn & Bacon, 2009.
Tifft, L., S. Maruna and E. Elliott. “The State of Criminology in the 21st Century: A Penpal Roundtable.” Contemporary Justice Review 9.4 (2006): 387-400.