At every step of the process in which communities are policed and punished, states, localities and other public entities benefit financially, along with their partners in the private sectors. Scholars Joe Soss and Joshua Page describe the multitude of ways in which the poorest people — not just individuals, but the communities around them — became a cash cow for extracting revenue for the state.
Joshua Page and Joe Soss, Legal Plunder: The Predatory Dimensions of Criminal Justice University of Chicago Press, 2025