Much has been written about the growing income inequality in the United States. However, an issue that receives much less attention is how income inequality has resulted in justice inequality. A recent report entitled “The Poor Get Prison: The Alarming Spread of the Criminalization of Poverty” by Karen Dolan of the Institute for Policy Studies noted, “Poor people, especially people of color, face a greater risk of being fined, arrested, and even incarcerated for minor offenses than other Americans. A broken taillight, an unpaid parking ticket, a minor drug offense, sitting on a sidewalk, or sleeping in a park can result in jail time” (tinyurl.com/y8jrr4fn). In other words, poverty is often treated as a criminal offense.
As Peter Edelman points out in his book Not a Crime to Be Poor: The Criminalization of Poverty in America (New Press, 2017), punishing the poor has been part of the United States since its founding with the use of almshouses, workhouses, and poorhouses. The country’s attitude toward the poor moved in a more positive direction during the New Deal era with the creation of Social Security, unemployment insurance, and fair labor standards. In the 1960s the Lyndon Johnson administration expanded government assistance programs, and the poverty rate fell by 11.1 percent. Sadly, however, the progress made during the War on Poverty did not last, and the poverty rate continues to rise.
An increase in negative attitudes toward the poor that began with the Great Recession of the 2000s has spilled over into the criminal justice system with what seemed to be a systematic effort to punish people for being poor. Local municipalities have increased fees, fines, and court costs for minor infractions, which for the poor proved to be daunting to meet while only a mere inconvenience for those with money. The number of minor infractions that could result in fines, fees, and court costs has increased as well. Because of the disparate impact these measures have on the poor, they have resulted in what has become known as the “criminalization” of poverty. Many of the city and county governments that have instituted these measures did so presumably to increase revenue to local coffers that were cash-strapped following the Great Recession.
Criminalization does not address the real causes of poverty, such as lack of affordable housing, lack of health care, and lack of a living wage. Instead, measures meant to raise revenue through low-level offenses make it much more difficult for an individual or family to move out of poverty, and may, in fact, drive them further into it. A study conducted by the Sentencing Project entitled “Americans with Criminal Records” concluded that “Mass incarceration and hyper-criminalization serve as major drivers of poverty; having a criminal record can present obstacles to employment, housing, public assistance, education, family reunification, building good credit, and more” (tinyurl.com/ya42m49g).
Far from being a benefit to municipalities, criminalizing poverty is costly. The cost to a city’s or county’s law enforcement agency, court system, and detention centers far outweighs what is brought in through fines and fees, especially because many who have these fines and fees imposed on them have no ability to pay.
That’s a Crime?
Criminalization of poverty can occur in two ways. In some instances, as with individuals who are homeless, an act itself is criminalized (e.g., begging or loitering). In other cases, it is an inability to comply with the consequences of being accused of or arrested for a crime that is criminalized (e.g., cash bail requirements, exorbitant fines and fees).
Homelessness, like punishing the poor, has been a part of the fabric of the United States since its beginning, but it was not always an object of scorn and derision. For a period of time in the late 1970s and early 1980s, homelessness was the cause of choice among anti-poverty activists, with nationally promoted efforts such as Hands Across America and Comic Relief. But as the number of homeless grew, the problem of homelessness became more visible. The lack of affordable housing, lack of adequate health care, lack of a living wage, and lack of adequate mental health services, among other things, contributed to the proliferation of individual panhandling and sleeping on the street or in homeless encampments, especially in large urban areas. As a result, many municipalities ceased viewing people who were homeless as human beings in need of an array of social services to help them end their homelessness. Instead, according to Gregg Barak in his book, Gimme Shelter: A Social History of Homelessness in Contemporary America (Praeger, 1991), the homeless became a “dreaded cultural entity not unlike inhabitants of penal colonies or madhouses.” Cities turned to the criminal justice system to deal with “the problem” and began instituting measures that targeted the homeless by making it illegal to perform life-sustaining activities such as sleeping, eating, and sitting in public.
In particular, two “infractions” that target the poor and homeless are city ordinances prohibiting panhandling and sleeping in public. Why municipalities choose to focus on these activities is unclear because both have been shown time and time again to be protected under the Constitution.
Panhandling has been held, under a First Amendment freedom of speech analysis, to be a protected activity. Everyone has a right to ask for help. Courts around the country have found that municipalities cannot target speech solely based on its content or form. For example, in the decision Reed v. Town of Gilbert, 576 U.S. (2015), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that government regulations curtailing free speech have to be as narrow as possible and must fulfill a “compelling governmental interest.” Since that decision was rendered, all 25 of the 25 anti-panhandling ordinances challenged in court have been found unconstitutional, and more than 30 additional cities have repealed anti-panhandling ordinances.
Even though anti-panhandling ordinances do not stop “offenders” from engaging in the practice or end a person’s homelessness, cities continue to come up with creative ways to criminalize a person’s right to ask for help. For example, in Charleston, South Carolina, since the city ordinance prohibiting panhandling was challenged as an unconstitutional violation of free speech, the city repealed the ordinance and has enacted new ordinances under the guise of public safety that are clearly targeted to prevent panhandling. The penalty if found guilty of panhandling is now 30 days in jail or a fine of up to $1,092. To address these practices, in August 2018 the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty initiated a panhandling campaign where local organizations around the country sent a coordinated letter to government officials in cities where panhandling is banned to demand the repeal of such restrictions on free speech.
In another effort to criminalize poverty, cities enacted ordinances banning sleeping in public places. The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty surveyed 187 cities across the country and found that, between 2006 and 2016, ordinances prohibiting sleeping in public increased by 31 percent. However, a recent court decision may put an end to these types of ordinances. In Martin v. City of Boise, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 25032 (9th Cir. Sept. 4, 2018), the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found, “As long as there is no option of sleeping indoors, the government cannot criminalize indigent homeless people for sleeping outdoors, on public property, on the false pretense that they had a choice in the matter.”
The court found that punishing a person for sleeping in public is no different than punishing a person because he or she is homeless—a punishment that is in direct contradiction to the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. Rather than pursue the criminalization of a behavior that is protected by the Eighth Amendment, municipalities would be better served by investing the funds spent on enforcement in efforts to prevent homelessness in their communities.
