Messenger argues that these disproportionate outcomes for impoverished litigants result from localities’ strategy of raising capital through legal fees (in lieu of increasing taxes) and manifest the criminalization of poverty. A vicious cycle of legal debt, recurrent court appearances, failure-to-pay charges, and incarceration befalls people such as Brooke Bergen, whose theft of an $8 tube of mascara led to a year in jail and over $15,000 owed. His book compiles stories of individuals who are tethered to the courts for no reason beyond the inability to pay these costs. Journalist and first-time author Messenger reported for years on the crushing impact of American criminal courts’ legal fees and fines on poor people and won a Pulitzer Prize for this work.
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