Ella+G’s+2017+OpEd+Article

Currently, a 19 year old boy is sitting in Solano County Prison after being allegedly charged with armed robbery. Those charges were based off of zero concrete evidence, but resulted in 6 years in state prison. He comes from a middle class family, raised by his single mother who has brought herself out of addiction and worked hard to raise 4 children on her own. Now she goes to work everyday, comes home and gets to “visit” her youngest son through the wires of a telephone. That is six years worth of christmas traditions that he will be removed from. Six birthdays that will be spent in a cell. Weddings will be celebrated. Grandparents and loved ones will pass. And he will be sitting in a cell, because of the words of another.

Meanwhile, wealthy, white, male convicts are walking the streets. Their cases were filled with scientific and proven evidence. The lives of those that they effected don't matter. The significance of the crime is ignored. And the tangible evidence is swept away with the wealth that the criminals come from. The money that they are bathing in is disgusting. Its appalling how a person can walk out of a court room, and go onto live their life after committing such a crime .

[[image:https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/P8sFCmYpilIc-TzZtm4pevM-zABNQDVDWmB6jvg-ccxX2c6FpkhplTHBo8xjyanj-FIjSVUTQToTV1nt1DjkRGMc39Kw1KFQeANHR29eoVJ4g8rCT61qCOL5VXIKtGgE7bgj_n15 width="279" height="175" align="left" caption="Men and Income "]] Every day, innocent people are convicted of crimes that they did not commit, or a re serving the time that they deserve. But the same day, guilty people are able to pay their way out of serving the time they deserve. In 2014 major income gaps were found in the yearly income of those incarcerated. It was shown that 41% less money was brought in yearly to those who were actually charged of their convictions. The statistics between the income of incarcerated people and their income are drastic, but not shocking.

I can't go into much more detail about the system because the problem is clear. The money and wealth of a person can define the amount of “justice” they are served. This right there is unjust, and there is no arguing that.