University of Washington sociology professor Alexes Harris said it was a vicious cycle. “If I could create a perfect system to maintain inequality, create inequality and sustain it over time, this is the system. The process perfectly labels, stigmatizes, financially burdens and imposes further legal consequences to poor people.”

No kidding jfc this is capitalist innovation to the extreme. I wish all the people who care about gulags held the US to the same standards.

Missouri has ruled that a person cannot be incarcerated over failure to pay previous incarceration fees.

how is this considered encouraging progress