Punishment Without Crime: How Our Massive Misdemeanor System Traps the Innocent and Makes America More Unequal

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A revelatory account of the misdemeanor machine that unjustly brands millions of Americans as criminals Punishment Without Crime offers an urgent new interpretation of inequality and injustice in America by examining the paradigmatic American offense the lowly misdemeanor Based on extensive original research, legal scholar Alexandra Natapoff reveals the inner workings of a massive petty offense system that produces over 13 million cases each year People arrested for minor crimes are swept through courts where defendants often lack lawyers, judges process cases in mere minutes, and nearly everyone pleads guilty This misdemeanor machine starts punishing people long before they are convicted it punishes the innocent and it punishes conduct that never should have been a crime As a result, vast numbers of Americans most of them poor and people of color are stigmatized as criminals, impoverished through fines and fees, and stripped of drivers licenses, jobs, and housing.For too long, misdemeanors have been ignored But they are crucial to understanding our punitive criminal system and our widening economic and racial divides. Free Download Punishment Without Crime: How Our Massive Misdemeanor System Traps the Innocent and Makes America More Unequal [ Author ] Alexandra Natapoff [ Kindle ePUB or eBook ] – kino-fada.fr This book will make you mad With the ubiquity of smart phones, social media, dash cams and body cams, many Americans were shocked to discover that police do abuse their power, often to the point of injustice and occasionally to the point of outright murder Move on up to the courts, which are so loaded with misdemeanor cases that judges run through cases at about one per minute, and overburdened public defenders are pressured to pressure their clients to plea bargain rather than put themselves This book will make you mad With the ubiquity of smart phones, social media, dash cams and body cams, many Americans were shocked to discover that police do abuse their power, often to the point of injustice and occasionally to the point of outright murder Move on up to the courts, which are so loaded with misdemeanor cases that judges run through cases at about one per minute, and overburdened public defenders are pressured to pressure their clients to plea bargain rather than put themselves and the busy courts through a long drug out court procedure And the next level of the so called justice system is comprised of a befuddling tangle of probation officers, court costs, fines, AA meetings, anger management classes, and of course the rightly maligned for profit jails and prisons, sometimes owned by the very people in charge of determining your punishment, and unless you can afford a lawyer averaging 200 520 or have a law degree yourself, you re probably screwed.Qui...I often like to start the year reading something light and positive, but this year I did the opposite Reading Punishment Without Crime How Our Massive Misdemeanor System Traps the Innocent and Makes America More Unequal, I felt that I was reading something important, which I hope will get people thinking about ways to improve our misdemeanor system As Alexandra Natapoff states Misdemeanors..are the chump change of the criminal system They are labeled minor, low level, and petty So I often like to start the year reading something light and positive, but this year I did the opposite Reading Punishment Without Crime How Our Massive Misdemeanor System Traps the Innocent and Makes America More Unequal, I felt that I was reading something important, which I hope will get people thinking about ways to improve our misdemeanor system As Alexandra Natapoff states Misdemeanors..are the chump change of the criminal system They are labeled minor, low level, and petty Sometimes they go by innocuous names like infraction or violation Because the crimes are small and the punishments relatively light in comparison to felonies, this world of low level offenses has not gotten much at...Full review is in the Spring 2019 edition of Democracy A Journal of Ideas4.25 starsAnother book full of important info everyone should read and probably won t.The book addressed many very pressing issues in the misdemeanor system that need immediate attention excessive fees, lack of adequate resources especially defense counsel privatization of jails and probation services, misdemeanors as revenue for local governments, rewarding police for citations and arrests regardless of their effectiveness, the disproportionate effects on poor and minority groups, andAll are great issues, worthy of discussion, and in need of change But much of the way t The book addressed many very pressing issues in the misdemeanor system that need imm...This is required reading Natapoff does an impeccable job of balancing policy details, philosophical underpinnings, and recommendations for structural changes necessary in our criminal justice system Ultimately, when we think about the misdemeanor system it s important to grapple with our conceptual understanding and values in regards to what constitutes criminal behavior Do we need law enforcement to arrest seizure people for infractions such as jaywalking and spitting How can we fund or This is required reading Natapoff does an impeccable job of balancing policy details, philosophical underpinnings, and recommendations for structural changes necessary in our criminal justice system Ultimately, when we think about the misdemeanor system it s important to grapple with our conceptual understanding and values in regards to what constitutes criminal behavior Do we need law enforcement to arrest seizure people for infractions such as jaywalking and spitting How can we fund or support the misd...At times repetitive, but a powerful read.Overall Depressing but necessary If you ve ever gone to court for a traffic ticket and seen the difference between how a judge handles that case and the trial you see on tv, you begin to see what Natapoff is writing about The many small and petty infractions that can barely be called crimes yet end up ruining lives are running amuck in our judicial systems 13 million Per Year is the estimate she uses for the number of misdemeanor offenders, which are difficult to define fairly across jurisdi Overall Depressing but necessary If you ve ever gone to court for a traffic ticket and seen the difference between how a judge handles that case and the trial you see on tv, you begin to see what Natapoff is writing about The many small and petty infractions that can barely be called crimes yet end up ruining lives are r...Misdemeanor Over 13,000,000 thirteen million cases per year according to the data gathered by Professor Natapoff Besides being an academic, she has street cred, having been a public defender in Balti, of all places For anyone wanting a graphic understanding of Balti, I recommend The Wire , as real and enlightening as television has ever been, and a good background for reading Punishment Without Crime The thesis here is that the misdemeanor system operatesas a means of socia Misdemeanor Over 13,000,000 thirteen million cases per year according to the data gathered by Professor Natapoff Besides being an academic, she has street cred, having been a public defender in Balti, of all places For anyone wanting a graphic understanding of Balti, I recommend The Wire , as real and enlightening as television has ever been, and a good background for reading Punishment Without Crime The thesis here is that the misdemeanor system operatesas a means of social control than an arm of justice The ways various states and localities have devised to rook the hapless are numerous and often ingenious Bottom line if you are not middle class and preferably white, you can have your life wrecked by a simple step over the line The pressure to plead guilty in order to avoid jail, or because one does not have the money to pay fines PLUS costs, whether one committed an offense or not and many have not weighs on the ...Wonderful book about the issues facing our criminal justice system Another great companion to a book like Locked in or New Jim Crow, but with a focus on the misdemeanor side of the criminal justice system, an often overlooked, but ever important piece of our broken system The book was thorough on its facts, data and sources, including in qualitative data and stories to enhance the reading I was highly impressed with the amount of data she was able to track down and the discussions of how litt Wonderful book about the issues facing our criminal justice system Another great companion to a book like Locked in or New Jim Crow, but with a focus on the misdemeanor side of the criminal justice system, an often overlooked, but ever important piece of our broken system The boo...

Punishment Without Crime: How Our Massive Misdemeanor System Traps the Innocent and Makes America More Unequal
  • 24 April 2017
  • Hardcover
  • 352 pages
  • 0465093795
  • Alexandra Natapoff
  • Punishment Without Crime: How Our Massive Misdemeanor System Traps the Innocent and Makes America More Unequal