The Rich Get Richer While The Poor Get Prison

Jeffrey H. Reiman (2003) provides an interesting thesis as the basis of his book The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison that the rich are treated by the criminal justice system in a much less severe manner than poorer nonviolent criminals. Reiman (2003) opens his book by undermining recent declines in crime as skewed, ôAfter more than 20 years of telling us that crime was growing out of control and proposing more cops and tougher laws and more prisons, crime rates are now coming down and politicians are jumping to claim credit for the reductionsö (p. 12). Despite this political rush for credit, Reiman (2003) contends crime is alive and well in American society at all socioeconomic levels. While many liberals often blame poverty as the root cause of crime, Reiman goes beyond poverty as an explanation. The authorÆs contention is that capitalism has created social norms out of poverty and greed, which in turn spur crime. From arrest to sentencing, Reiman demonstrates the pervasive anti-poor bias in the criminal justice system. He charges that the wealthy cause as much death and destruction and monetary loss to society as do crimes committed by the poor. Yet the poor go to prison while the wealthy, like Kenneth Lay, remain free after committing much more destructive crimes.

Reiman (2003) is not suggesting that poverty, lack of education, and prejudice are insignificant factors in the formation of crime, but he does argu

. . .
ice fails to correct the inequality in arrests, trials, and sentencing between the very rich and the poor because it is a social institution that is embedded in a social system that promotes inequality. The wealthy control the criminal justice system, which works in their favor, and they are perceived to be fighting the real criminals so the order of the day is more arrests and more prisons for the poor. There is a process of ôweeding out the wealthyö in the U.S. criminal justice system for this reason, claims Reiman (2003, p. 109). Reiman (2003) provides a great deal of data that shows racial disparities in average sentencing, something Reiman claims represents the division between rich and poor because minorities, particularly African Americans, are disproportionately poor. Reiman (2003) is not claiming there is some conspiracy going on among the wealthy to corrupt the criminal justice system and bias it against the poor. Rather, he argues that capitalism promotes both poverty and greed and power that permits a minority of individuals to shape the broad outcomes of a social institution like the criminal justice system. As Reiman (2003) notes, ôit is not my view that the poor are all innocent victims persecuted by the evil
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Approximate Word count = 1226
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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