Peter Edelman
Autor de So Rich, So Poor: Why It's So Hard to End Poverty in America
Obras de Peter Edelman
Etiquetado
Conocimiento común
- Nombre legal
- Edelman, Peter Benjamin
- Fecha de nacimiento
- 1938-01-09
- Nacionalidad
- USA
- Lugar de nacimiento
- Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
- Educación
- Harvard University
Harvard Law School - Ocupaciones
- Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Planning and Evaluation
- Relaciones
- Marian Wright Edelman (wife)
Ezra Edelman (son)
Jonah Edelman (son)
Miembros
Reseñas
America’s Stunning War - on the Poor
We live at the center of a circle. The rim is sticky with crime, drugs and poverty. If we venture from the center to the rim, we can get stuck, and no matter where we touch first, we can succumb to all of them. Poverty and crime are not cause and effect. If you are affected by one, you can be affected by the other. Unfortunately, local and state governments don’t see it that way, and promulgate laws to ban, banish or severely punish the poor, pushing them outside the system into drugs and crime. Not A Crime To Be Poor is about criminalizing poverty, ruining millions of lives. For no apparent benefit to anyone. It is a stomach-turning tour of government sadism:
-The anti-poor laws on the books are most often unconstitutional, but that doesn’t seem to stop anything. Trip over an obscure, nonsensical law (calling 911 more than once), and a criminal process can begin, preventing jobs, professional licenses and apartment rentals. It starts young, as poor, underprivileged and disabled children under 10 are now routinely sent to court for “misbehavior” in school, resulting in criminal records. Peter Edelman says community policing has turned into community fleecing as cops stake out poor neighborhoods, looking for the slightest infraction to send the poor into the criminal system.
-Towns and counties invent crimes (riding a bike without two hands on the handlebars) and add fees (county gym) to top off exorbitant fines ($600 for burning leaves), surcharges (40% of the grand total) and interest. A simple traffic stop can easily run to thousands of dollars in the new America. 41 states charge for room and board for those who cannot pay their fines, adding massively to the total owed. California has $10 billion in uncollected court-ordered debt on its books. A $500 traffic ticket costs $1829 if it is paid right away.
-Authorities will suspend drivers’ licenses without a second thought. In California, four million people drive without a license, putting them at further risk of fines and prison. The point of this sanction escapes everyone.
-The trend of money bail for every little charge has led to massive jail building, and costs of over a hundred dollars a day per inmate. The poor are left rotting in cells for literally years awaiting trial. If they do get out, there is no compensation for the time spent, their jobs and careers lost forever. Having no alternatives, they turn to real crime. They often develop mental illness in jail. Suicide is another pointless outcome. About 500,000 mostly black people are in jail simply for the inability to post bond - on any given day. With no small irony, time spent in pretrial detention is credited against any sentence. So the dangerous ones, if convicted, can be sent straight home. If they are innocent, too bad.
-Constitutional law and federal policy forbid putting noncustodial parents behind on child support in jail. But 10,000 men are in jail for it, preventing them from working, while the tab rises because states consider jail as “voluntary unemployment”.
-In LA, a third of those leaving incarceration join the homeless, along with half those coming out of foster care, possibly the biggest state ripoff and scam of all. They become homeless within six months.
-In 1955, America had 229 beds per 100,000 for the mentally ill. Today, it is 20. The mentally ill have shifted to jails, where they are abused, tormented and sometimes tortured, but usually not treated. One third of women inmates have serious mental illness. Individual jails are the largest mental health institutions in the country. Private jailers are paid not to treat them.
The war on the poor is like the war on drugs, lost in advance. All the blockages to welfare programs, all the filings and meetings and inspections, cost a fortune. Pilot after pilot shows that a small guaranteed income saves three dollars for every dollar spent and takes millions out of poverty and the justice system. For inmates, every dollar spent on education saves four or five in reduced recidivism. But America insists on hammering the poor into submission instead. America has 50 states beating off the poor, hoping they will just go away, while at the same time ensuring there are more of them.
What is great about Not A Crime To Be Poor is that Edelman has balanced the grim with the hopeful. He has been at this for five decades, and far from resigned and depressed, he adds hopeful notes to most every depressing situation. It’s not just number crunching from his desk. There are crusading lawyers everywhere, challenging the illegal and making dents in the madness. He has gone out and visited all kinds of projects. The last third of the book is all about local initiatives that take responsibility away from local government, to make small inroads with individuals. They give individuals a sense of accomplishment, confidence and dignity, and they succeed far beyond battling the forces of ill will. So the book is unexpectedly and remarkably hopeful.
David Wineberg… (más)
We live at the center of a circle. The rim is sticky with crime, drugs and poverty. If we venture from the center to the rim, we can get stuck, and no matter where we touch first, we can succumb to all of them. Poverty and crime are not cause and effect. If you are affected by one, you can be affected by the other. Unfortunately, local and state governments don’t see it that way, and promulgate laws to ban, banish or severely punish the poor, pushing them outside the system into drugs and crime. Not A Crime To Be Poor is about criminalizing poverty, ruining millions of lives. For no apparent benefit to anyone. It is a stomach-turning tour of government sadism:
-The anti-poor laws on the books are most often unconstitutional, but that doesn’t seem to stop anything. Trip over an obscure, nonsensical law (calling 911 more than once), and a criminal process can begin, preventing jobs, professional licenses and apartment rentals. It starts young, as poor, underprivileged and disabled children under 10 are now routinely sent to court for “misbehavior” in school, resulting in criminal records. Peter Edelman says community policing has turned into community fleecing as cops stake out poor neighborhoods, looking for the slightest infraction to send the poor into the criminal system.
-Towns and counties invent crimes (riding a bike without two hands on the handlebars) and add fees (county gym) to top off exorbitant fines ($600 for burning leaves), surcharges (40% of the grand total) and interest. A simple traffic stop can easily run to thousands of dollars in the new America. 41 states charge for room and board for those who cannot pay their fines, adding massively to the total owed. California has $10 billion in uncollected court-ordered debt on its books. A $500 traffic ticket costs $1829 if it is paid right away.
-Authorities will suspend drivers’ licenses without a second thought. In California, four million people drive without a license, putting them at further risk of fines and prison. The point of this sanction escapes everyone.
-The trend of money bail for every little charge has led to massive jail building, and costs of over a hundred dollars a day per inmate. The poor are left rotting in cells for literally years awaiting trial. If they do get out, there is no compensation for the time spent, their jobs and careers lost forever. Having no alternatives, they turn to real crime. They often develop mental illness in jail. Suicide is another pointless outcome. About 500,000 mostly black people are in jail simply for the inability to post bond - on any given day. With no small irony, time spent in pretrial detention is credited against any sentence. So the dangerous ones, if convicted, can be sent straight home. If they are innocent, too bad.
-Constitutional law and federal policy forbid putting noncustodial parents behind on child support in jail. But 10,000 men are in jail for it, preventing them from working, while the tab rises because states consider jail as “voluntary unemployment”.
-In LA, a third of those leaving incarceration join the homeless, along with half those coming out of foster care, possibly the biggest state ripoff and scam of all. They become homeless within six months.
-In 1955, America had 229 beds per 100,000 for the mentally ill. Today, it is 20. The mentally ill have shifted to jails, where they are abused, tormented and sometimes tortured, but usually not treated. One third of women inmates have serious mental illness. Individual jails are the largest mental health institutions in the country. Private jailers are paid not to treat them.
The war on the poor is like the war on drugs, lost in advance. All the blockages to welfare programs, all the filings and meetings and inspections, cost a fortune. Pilot after pilot shows that a small guaranteed income saves three dollars for every dollar spent and takes millions out of poverty and the justice system. For inmates, every dollar spent on education saves four or five in reduced recidivism. But America insists on hammering the poor into submission instead. America has 50 states beating off the poor, hoping they will just go away, while at the same time ensuring there are more of them.
What is great about Not A Crime To Be Poor is that Edelman has balanced the grim with the hopeful. He has been at this for five decades, and far from resigned and depressed, he adds hopeful notes to most every depressing situation. It’s not just number crunching from his desk. There are crusading lawyers everywhere, challenging the illegal and making dents in the madness. He has gone out and visited all kinds of projects. The last third of the book is all about local initiatives that take responsibility away from local government, to make small inroads with individuals. They give individuals a sense of accomplishment, confidence and dignity, and they succeed far beyond battling the forces of ill will. So the book is unexpectedly and remarkably hopeful.
David Wineberg… (más)
In his book, Searching for America's Heart, Peter Edelman, sets forth a plan to end poverty in America and to carry on the work that was started by Robert F. Kennedy. As he says, "I decided to pursue my personal memorial to Robert Kennedy by carrying on in his spirit." Peter Edelman worked for Robert F. Kennedy from his 1964 Senatorial campaign until RFK's death in 1968, to quote Edelman:
"The sixties represented the zenith of American interest in reducing poverty, and Robert Kennedy was a major actor on the subject during that decade."
The book begins with Edelman explaining why he resigned from the Clinton administration after President Clinton signed the 1996 Welfare bill. In his signing and as a way of legitimizing the bill, President Clinton quoted RFK commenting on the importance of work. The new Welfare bill has forced people to either find jobs or to be completely cut off from welfare. I doesn't matter that most of these jobs do not pay enough to feed a family. Edelman quotes a letter he received from RFK's youngest daughter, Rory, in which she said that Clinton had contributed to the "bastardizing...of his name and legacy."
The book begins with an overview of the career of RFK. Of all the books I have read, this gives the most detailed account of the work he accomplished as the Senator for New York.
"He was conscientious about his conventional Senate work...His day-to-day Senate work has received little attention from biographers, because he was doing so many other things...He wasn't the least bit uninterested. He was just interested in so much else at the same time."
While describing what RFK either succeeded in doing or in attempting, Edelman does not rely on "what if?" He gives concrete examples of what has to be done in the new war on poverty. He gives examples of programs throughout the US that are successfuly helping people escape the web of poverty. Proper education is a large part of that. He does suggest, however, that the safety net that was removed with the 1996 Welfare act is necessary to help people over the rough spots. In describing Kennedy's beliefs about assisting the poorest citizens Edelman says:
"He came to realize that people at the bottom were not always going to be able to work and that a safety net to end hunger and assist in survival was essential"
The reason for a safety net is to help them have the freedom to become educated in order to find a decent paying job, to help them feed their children. I just hope that those in power will read this book and follow the examples that it sets out.
This book gives me hope that the work of Robert F. Kennedy was not in vain, that much of what he worked for and hoped for will eventually come to be.
Copyright 2002… (más)
"The sixties represented the zenith of American interest in reducing poverty, and Robert Kennedy was a major actor on the subject during that decade."
The book begins with Edelman explaining why he resigned from the Clinton administration after President Clinton signed the 1996 Welfare bill. In his signing and as a way of legitimizing the bill, President Clinton quoted RFK commenting on the importance of work. The new Welfare bill has forced people to either find jobs or to be completely cut off from welfare. I doesn't matter that most of these jobs do not pay enough to feed a family. Edelman quotes a letter he received from RFK's youngest daughter, Rory, in which she said that Clinton had contributed to the "bastardizing...of his name and legacy."
The book begins with an overview of the career of RFK. Of all the books I have read, this gives the most detailed account of the work he accomplished as the Senator for New York.
"He was conscientious about his conventional Senate work...His day-to-day Senate work has received little attention from biographers, because he was doing so many other things...He wasn't the least bit uninterested. He was just interested in so much else at the same time."
While describing what RFK either succeeded in doing or in attempting, Edelman does not rely on "what if?" He gives concrete examples of what has to be done in the new war on poverty. He gives examples of programs throughout the US that are successfuly helping people escape the web of poverty. Proper education is a large part of that. He does suggest, however, that the safety net that was removed with the 1996 Welfare act is necessary to help people over the rough spots. In describing Kennedy's beliefs about assisting the poorest citizens Edelman says:
"He came to realize that people at the bottom were not always going to be able to work and that a safety net to end hunger and assist in survival was essential"
The reason for a safety net is to help them have the freedom to become educated in order to find a decent paying job, to help them feed their children. I just hope that those in power will read this book and follow the examples that it sets out.
This book gives me hope that the work of Robert F. Kennedy was not in vain, that much of what he worked for and hoped for will eventually come to be.
Copyright 2002… (más)
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Estadísticas
- Obras
- 5
- Miembros
- 193
- Popularidad
- #113,337
- Valoración
- 3.8
- Reseñas
- 3
- ISBNs
- 15
Unlike a lot of books, Edelman devotes a fair bit of space to solutions. What we have to do isn't mysterious, and there have been successes in reversing these trends.… (más)