Justice and The Poor

Justice and The Poor: Another troubling finding of the 1995 report was that thousands of low-income Canadians are imprisoned routinely because they are unable to pay fines. Also disturbing were indications that many poor young people who cannot get legal representation for minor offences end up with criminal records that bar them from jobs and thus condemn them to a lifetime of poverty. When we examined these issues further, we found that the different stages of the criminal justice process are so closely interconnected that their effects cannot be separated. We therefore extended our analysis to three main stages: relations with the police, bail decisions and sentencing.?