Money and Punishment, Circa 2020

Revenue has a extended background of remaining utilised as punishment, and punishment has a extended background of remaining utilised discriminatorily and violently towards communities of colour. This quantity surveys the lots of misuses of dollars as punishment and the assortment of endeavours underway to undo the webs of fines, costs, assessments, expenses, and surcharges that undergird so a great deal of point out and regional funding. Whether or not in domains that are denominated “civil,” “criminal,” or “administrative,” and whether the demands are about regulation, health and fitness care, employment, housing, instruction, or safety expert services, racism intersects with the criminalization of poverty in all of life’s sectors to impose harms felt disproportionately by folks of colour.

In the spring of 2020, the stark inequalities of the pandemic’s impression and of police killings sparked uprisings towards the prevalence of point out-based violence and of govt failures. People protests have underscored the urgent want for profound, sustainable transformations in govt devices that have come to be all as well common. This quantity maps the buildings that create oppressive tactics, the work underway to challenge the inequalities, and the assortment of proposals to look for long lasting alterations of expectations and tactics so as to shape a social and political order that is respectful of all individuals’ dignity, generative for communities, and provides a assortment of expert services to protect safety and well-remaining.