T Time: Ep. 7

Prisons & prisoners galore! But the hot viral perspective hasn’t quite hit the nail on the head in terms of what the criminal justice system is likely optimizing for. Optics are terrible in some circles, but if their objectives are to convict as many arrestees with as little time & effort spent per convict, then their “criminalization of the poor” has helped achieve those goals. Whereas white collar criminals & higher-ups in the crime game can afford vigorous counsel who would take more cases to trial, ensuring fewer cases adjudicated and likely lower conviction rates, the elected officials from Sheriffs to DAs to County Judges can prop up their numbers by railroading indigent defendants by the dozen. Since there are latent wealth and income gaps between racial groups, one of the outcomes of this ROI strategy is the disproportionality the newsies have made such a stink about recently. That is not to say there is not disproportionate offending rates between groups, and certainly individuals have motivators that lead to criminality, but bias is not the most obvious deduction we can make if we view police & courts as rational economic actors.