Profit and Punishment

“The billowing corruption Messenger describes in Profit and Punishment feels like Charles Dickens’ Bleak House, and the comically swollen state bureaucracies he portrays are reminiscent of Catch 22 . . . A must-read for anyone who wants a readable, well-documented case for state justice system reform.”—Aaron Belz, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"Messenger is one of the few columnists—maybe the only one—in America whose beat is the poor who are preyed upon by public officials."—St. Louis Magazine

“With the keen eye and compassionate heart of an award-winning journalist, Messenger shows us that Ferguson is everywhere, putting a human face on the millions of Americans being crushed every year by cash register injustice.”—Jeffrey Selbin, Chancellor’s Clinical Professor of Law

"A shocking account . . . In plainspoken and powerful language, Messenger exposes the unconscionable, unethical and utterly heartbreaking. Read these riveting accounts and be stirred to action!"—Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Pulitzer Prize Finalist, author of Race for Profit

"Tony Messenger's Pulitzer Prize-winning series on debtors' prisons in Missouri made a serious difference in real people's lives and his book will be a must read for a nation seeking a bipartisan path forward on criminal justice reform."—Claire McCaskill, former US Senator and analyst for MSNBC

“An intimate, raw, and utterly scathing look at the ordinary and everyday ways in which America's criminal justice system has directly increased the poverty of the many, and dramatically increased the profits of the few, in recent years. All will have zero doubt after reading this devastating account of the full scale human rights crisis that has been wrought by these policies that they must act, immediately, to overhaul them."—Heather Ann Thompson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Blood in the Water

“Crucial evidence that the justice system is broken and has to be fixed. Please read this book.”—James Patterson, #1 New York Times bestselling author

"Timely and important . . . should enrage anyone who comes to understand it—and Profit and Punishment is the perfect place to start that understanding."—Shelf Awareness

"An eye-opening, relevant, and heartbreaking account on the epidemic of criminalized poverty.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Explores the byzantine paths of so-called justice . . . Profit and Punishment is persuasive and enraging, a book that will stir readers from both sides of the aisle to support reform.”—Booklist

“A heartbreaking study of how the American justice system is weighted against the poor . . . Interweaving hard evidence with harrowing firsthand stories, this is a powerful call for change.”—Publishers Weekly