By Joseph Rosen
“I was locked up because I was poor.” This is the testimony of Twanda Marshinda Brown, a single working mother of seven who spent 57 days in a Lexington County (SC) jail for failing to pay $100 a month toward traffic tickets. For thousands of poor Louisianans who have been put in jail, their experience has been much the same. The Louisiana Sheriff’s Association has recently admitted that throughout the state, at least 2,181 people have been incarcerated for more than a year without a trial. (The results of a public record request challenging the internal survey of the LA Sheriff’s Association is still pending.) In Orleans Parish Prison, 90% of inmates are currently awaiting trial; of these at least 1400 men and women, more than half find themselves in a position like Brown’s, charged with nonviolent offenses and imprisoned for no other reason that they cannot afford bail and fees.
A recent survey by the Federal Reserve revealed that 66% of Americans would not be able to cover an emergency expense of $400. The cost of bail or a court fee represents an even greater burden for someone charged with a crime: the median annual income for an incarcerated person (calculated pre-detention) amounts to a mere $15,109. Under these conditions, many people are unjustly doomed to lengthy pre-trial detentions despite their legal right to a “speedy trial” and the legal assurance that these individuals are “presumed innocent until proven guilty in court of law.” As has always been the case in the US criminal injustice system, “equal rights” are enjoyed unequally.
“I have been struggling to find a job, and I have even more bills because I couldn’t work in jail.” Just like Brown, most people lose their jobs during their detention. Many lose their housing. Many suffer from failing health as their conditions go uncared for. Many have families that are thrown into chaos for lack of childcare. These hardships are born by the incarcerated as well as their families and communities on the outside. No one gains from these detentions except for the commercial bail bond companies, the private companies that are contracted to run these prisons, and the corporations whose executives leech profits from the legal wage theft of the imprisoned workers that they exploit.
Reform is being fought for by organizations inside and outside of the prison walls. The courts’ use of cash bail has been challenged on constitutional grounds and has been ended in some jurisdictions. Prisoners continue to mount strikes to demand their labor rights among other basic rights. Reforms to this system of mass criminalization and modern bondage can be won through struggle, but workers who know better will not let up the fight until we rid our society of those who would profit from our poverty.