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Barbara Ehrenreich's Is It Now A Crime Being Poor

1027 Words5 Pages

Criminal Homeless

Imagine yourself without a job and receiving a final note from your bank stating that you only have a week to dislodge. In consequence, you become homeless as a bug of society and if you sleep in any bench or under a bridge, you will end up in jail. Many people have been suffering such cruel reality due to their poverty. Barbara Ehrenreich, a political activist and author in her essay “Is it Now a Crime Being Poor?” discusses the problems of the US correctional system about the treat of homeless people. She explains how they are sent to jails for minor crimes. She also explains some circumstances from people that have been sunken into debt facing prison. On the other hand, her argument against the school’s truancy fines is weak because these fines prevent kids to become part of criminal gangs. However, her essay is effective because she demonstrates to the reader the problems that the U.S. is facing to deal with criminals and poor population. …show more content…

In her essay, she points that an individual should not be tagged as a criminal to the society due to his or her poverty. She also points that the government should provide more shelters to homeless, and that the government should help them to find a job in order to have them enrolled back in society. Unfortunately, the public housing, which is a support for poor families provided by the government, has been becoming an easy target for law enforcers to fine people that is in need. As Ehrenreich says, “The public housing that remains has become more prisonlike, with residents subjected to drug testing and random police sweeps”. It demonstrates the elephant in the room that the government wants to avoid such reality meanwhile people is suffering in public houses filled of diseases and filth. As a result, it attracts criminals and gang

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