From Vera Institute of Justice:
An estimated 24 million people in the United States have been convicted of felony offenses. Former president and current presidential candidate Donald Trump joined them on May 30 when he was found guilty of falsifying business records to hide a hush money payment and influence a presidential election. Since then, politicians and media alike have described him as a “felon” and “convicted criminal.”
Yet Trump’s experience of the criminal legal system is clearly an outlier. In the immediate wake of his conviction, his campaign, the Republican National Committee, and an allied fundraising group raised tens of millions of dollars, and he has wide support for the highest office in the country.
Others with past felony convictions, on the other hand, don’t have this kind of power. While Trump sells shirts adorned with his mug shot, many legally innocent people are sitting in jail before they even go to trial because they can’t afford bail. The criminal legal system is hardly just in its treatment of most people—particularly people of color—and far too often extracts guilty pleas even from the innocent. Many prisons are violent, traumatizing places that leave people worse off than they were when they entered. Even long after release, people with prior convictions face stigma, isolation, and difficulty obtaining jobs and housing. Dehumanizing language facilitates their further systemic inhumane treatment, continuing to punish them long after they have served their time. Continue reading >>>
|
|
|
|
