Introducing a Bolder Vision for our Next 50 Years
CRIMINALIZATION OF POVERTY
In the United States, and especially in the Deep South, poverty is treated as a crime.
In 2013, Adel Edwards pleaded guilty to burning leaves in his South Georgia yard without a permit. Mr. Edwards, whose only source of income was food stamps, was fined $500. When he was sentenced to a year of private probation, the amount he owed ballooned to over $1,000. Because he was poor, Mr.Edwards was sent to jail.
The criminal legal system is built to generate revenue from the poor. This is not a flaw. It is a direct legacy of the Jim Crow convict-leasing system, which forced incarcerated people into labor for private profit. That tradition continues. Today, prisons, healthcare, and probation are privatized. Courts are funded by stacking fines and fees on those who can least afford them. Justice is commodified, and the price is paid by our most vulnerable neighbors.
Our Work
SCHR aims to dismantle systems of wealth-based punishment. We expose and litigate against the extortion of private probation, the burden of illegal court fees, and the injustice of money bail. We challenge the idea that anyone should profit from human suffering. Our work affirms a simple truth: no one should be jailed simply for being poor.
