U.S. Jails Serve as “Modern-Day Debtors’ Prisons”
- Jails Have Become Warehouses for the Poor, Ill and Addicted, a Report Says | The New York Times
- Lawsuits Call Ferguson, Jennings Jails Debtors’ Prisons | St. Louis Post-Dispatch
- Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) on the Smarter Sentencing Act | C-SPAN
A report released this week by the Vera Institute of Justice finds that the majority of people being held in America’s jails are the poor, those suffering from mental illness, and those with drug problems. Also, those in jail are being held, primarily, for minor offenses.
In Missouri, 15 people sued the city of Ferguson and the town of Jennings, alleging that jails there “operate as modern-day debtor’s prisons.”
Criminal justice reform was also in the spotlight on Capitol Hill where U. S. Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), reintroduced a bill aimed at reducing the size of the federal prison inmate population. In addition, a bipartisan coalition of U.S. senators introduced drug-sentencing legislation also aimed at reducing the federal prison populations. You can see Senator Cory Booker (D–NJ) speaking about the Smarter Sentencing Act on the Senate floor by clicking the C-SPAN link below.