The Real Crime: Who Gets Caged and Who Walks Free

They tell us the law is blind. That justice wears a blindfold and weighs only facts, not faces. But if you’ve ever stepped foot in a courtroom—or sat in a cold holding cell waiting for a court date that feels more like a death sentence than a hearing—you know that’s a damn lie.

Justice isn’t blind. She just looks the other way when money talks.

Rikers for the Poor, Rehab for the Privileged

Let’s keep it all the way real: if you’re Black, brown, broke, or from the wrong ZIP code, prison is always on the table. If you’re rich, white, and well-connected? “He made a mistake. He has his whole future ahead of him.” They don’t say that when we’re in the defendant’s chair.

Look at Kalief Browder—jailed at Rikers Island for three years over a backpack he may not have even taken. No trial. No conviction. Just rot. Meanwhile, Brock Turner raped an unconscious woman behind a dumpster and walked after three months in county jail because “prison would be too hard on him.”

The system doesn’t just fail. It chooses who to fail—and who to protect.

Plea Deals: Coercion in a Suit and Tie

Nearly 95% of criminal cases never see trial. Why? Because prosecutors stack charges like poker chips and force people into plea deals. You’re innocent? Doesn’t matter. If you fight, you risk decades. So you take the deal—even if it means wearing a conviction for the rest of your life.

That’s not justice. That’s legal extortion.

And who takes those deals most? People without money for bail. Without access to private lawyers. Without connections. They sit in jails for months, even years, just to be offered “freedom” in exchange for a guilty plea. It’s a rigged game.

Cash Bail: Freedom Has a Price Tag

Bail is supposed to ensure you show up for court—not punish you for being poor. But in America, if you can’t pay, you stay. That means innocent people rot behind bars while the wealthy bond out the same day.

So freedom becomes a product. Your liberty is auctioned off—and the highest bidder always wins.

The Prosecutor’s Playground

Let’s not forget who really holds the cards: prosecutors. They decide what to charge, when to charge, and how hard to go. And they don’t just enforce laws—they play politics with people’s lives. Most of them have one goal: convictions. Why? Because conviction rates look good during election season.

And let’s not even talk about public defenders drowning in hundreds of cases a month, trying to do right by clients with barely enough time to read the file before court.

This ain’t law and order—it’s a meat grinder.

The Real Crime Is the System Itself

Here’s the truth no one in power wants to admit: the biggest crime in this country isn’t drug possession or petty theft—it’s the state-sanctioned caging of poor, marginalized people while the rich commit harm with impunity.

The real crime is a system that criminalizes survival while excusing exploitation.

Wall Street steals billions and gets a bailout. A single mother steals diapers and gets booked. That’s not justice—it’s war.

This Is a Caste System with a Law Degree

And like any caste system, it’s enforced by design. Judges know it. Prosecutors play it. Politicians campaign on it. And society feeds off it—because as long as some people are buried under the system, others get to live above it, guilt-free.

But we’re here to call it out.

We’re not asking for scraps or softer sentences. We’re demanding transformation. Burn the whole blueprint. Justice isn’t justice if it depends on your bank account or skin color.

We don’t need a better version of a racist machine. We need something entirely new.

Next up in the series: “Reentry Isn’t Freedom: It’s a Second Sentence.” Stay tuned.