This isn't a very long book, but Edelman crams a lot of information into it. Effectively, we have turned being poor into a crime to be penalized. Edelman shows how this runs throughout the system: First, in the criminal justice system, politicians intent on cutting budgets have instead turned the courts into a source of revenue. Defendants are piled with fees they can't pay, then jailed for noncompliance, without access to lawyers. Their drivers' licenses are taken away, making it impossible to get to work and driving them deeper into debt. For lack of bail, they stay in pretrial detention, forcing them to accept plea agreements. In the welfare system, applicants are treated as would be fraudsters; criminal convictions, of any type, keep you from getting assistance. (Edelman quit the Clinton administration over welfare reform.) In schools, discipline is turned over to the criminal courts. Housing law is turned against poor people, from "nuisance" ordinances used against DV victims, to "crime free" housing. Each of these chapters could sustain its own book, but Edelman does a nice job of providing an overview that shows how they're linked together.

Unlike a lot of books, Edelman devotes a fair bit of space to solutions. What we have to do isn't mysterious, and there have been successes in reversing these trends. ( )

America’s Stunning War - on the Poor

We live at the center of a circle. The rim is sticky with crime, drugs and poverty. If we venture from the center to the rim, we can get stuck, and no matter where we touch first, we can succumb to all of them. Poverty and crime are not cause and effect. If you are affected by one, you can be affected by the other. Unfortunately, local and state governments don’t see it that way, and promulgate laws to ban, banish or severely punish the poor, pushing them outside the system into drugs and crime. Not A Crime To Be Poor is about criminalizing poverty, ruining millions of lives. For no apparent benefit to anyone. It is a stomach-turning tour of government sadism:

-The anti-poor laws on the books are most often unconstitutional, but that doesn’t seem to stop anything. Trip over an obscure, nonsensical law (calling 911 more than once), and a criminal process can begin, preventing jobs, professional licenses and apartment rentals. It starts young, as poor, underprivileged and disabled children under 10 are now routinely sent to court for “misbehavior” in school, resulting in criminal records. Peter Edelman says community policing has turned into community fleecing as cops stake out poor neighborhoods, looking for the slightest infraction to send the poor into the criminal system.

-Towns and counties invent crimes (riding a bike without two hands on the handlebars) and add fees (county gym) to top off exorbitant fines ($600 for burning leaves), surcharges (40% of the grand total) and interest. A simple traffic stop can easily run to thousands of dollars in the new America. 41 states charge for room and board for those who cannot pay their fines, adding massively to the total owed. California has $10 billion in uncollected court-ordered debt on its books. A $500 traffic ticket costs $1829 if it is paid right away.

-Authorities will suspend drivers’ licenses without a second thought. In California, four million people drive without a license, putting them at further risk of fines and prison. The point of this sanction escapes everyone.

-The trend of money bail for every little charge has led to massive jail building, and costs of over a hundred dollars a day per inmate. The poor are left rotting in cells for literally years awaiting trial. If they do get out, there is no compensation for the time spent, their jobs and careers lost forever. Having no alternatives, they turn to real crime. They often develop mental illness in jail. Suicide is another pointless outcome. About 500,000 mostly black people are in jail simply for the inability to post bond - on any given day. With no small irony, time spent in pretrial detention is credited against any sentence. So the dangerous ones, if convicted, can be sent straight home. If they are innocent, too bad.

-Constitutional law and federal policy forbid putting noncustodial parents behind on child support in jail. But 10,000 men are in jail for it, preventing them from working, while the tab rises because states consider jail as “voluntary unemployment”.

-In LA, a third of those leaving incarceration join the homeless, along with half those coming out of foster care, possibly the biggest state ripoff and scam of all. They become homeless within six months.

-In 1955, America had 229 beds per 100,000 for the mentally ill. Today, it is 20. The mentally ill have shifted to jails, where they are abused, tormented and sometimes tortured, but usually not treated. One third of women inmates have serious mental illness. Individual jails are the largest mental health institutions in the country. Private jailers are paid not to treat them.

The war on the poor is like the war on drugs, lost in advance. All the blockages to welfare programs, all the filings and meetings and inspections, cost a fortune. Pilot after pilot shows that a small guaranteed income saves three dollars for every dollar spent and takes millions out of poverty and the justice system. For inmates, every dollar spent on education saves four or five in reduced recidivism. But America insists on hammering the poor into submission instead. America has 50 states beating off the poor, hoping they will just go away, while at the same time ensuring there are more of them.

What is great about Not A Crime To Be Poor is that Edelman has balanced the grim with the hopeful. He has been at this for five decades, and far from resigned and depressed, he adds hopeful notes to most every depressing situation. It’s not just number crunching from his desk. There are crusading lawyers everywhere, challenging the illegal and making dents in the madness. He has gone out and visited all kinds of projects. The last third of the book is all about local initiatives that take responsibility away from local government, to make small inroads with individuals. They give individuals a sense of accomplishment, confidence and dignity, and they succeed far beyond battling the forces of ill will. So the book is unexpectedly and remarkably hopeful.

David Wineberg ( )