Why I Read The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison
I picked up The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison expecting a grim lecture on inequality. What I found instead was a clear and steady voice showing how the American justice system protects wealth while turning poverty into a lifelong sentence. I’m reading it from the UK, yet every page felt close enough to recognise. The accents change. The logic doesn’t.

This review looks at what Jeffrey Reiman exposes in the Fourth Edition and why the message still hits hard today.

Justice Through Reiman’s Eyes
Reiman doesn’t rant. He doesn’t preach. He lays out a system that sorts people by class long before guilt or innocence even enters the room. Wealth softens the ground. Poverty sharpens the fall.

Reading him feels like walking through a city at night while someone points out the corners the streetlights avoid. You notice who gets watched. You notice who gets forgiven. And you start to see the pattern behind the pattern.

The Human Cost Hidden Behind the Data
The statistics matter, yet Reiman’s strength comes from exposing the lives behind them. Families get torn apart. Courtrooms pretend to be neutral while handing out different punishments for the same behaviour. Young lads get marked early, and that mark follows them every step of the way.

The book shows how poverty becomes part of the evidence long before anyone steps inside a courtroom. Once you see it, you can’t pretend it’s an accident.

A UK Reader Looking Across the Atlantic
Even though Reiman writes about the United States, the message echoes over here. You spot the drift. Neighbourhoods that get stopped and searched more. People punished harder because they started with less. Services cut until punishment becomes the only tool left. Different laws. Same direction of travel.

Reading this from the UK feels like watching a warning written in bold letters. You don’t need to squint to recognise it.

Why This Book Still Matters
Reiman wrote this edition years ago, yet the points feel untouched by time. Wealth protects itself. The system keeps its shape. Public debates come and go, but the same people stay at the sharp end.

The clarity of his writing stays with you. It slips into your conversations. It changes how you watch the news. It reminds you that the system isn’t failing. It’s performing exactly as designed.

That is why it belongs on this blog. The truth travels well, even when it crosses oceans.

Would I Recommend It?
If you want a book that breaks through excuses, read this. If you want to understand how a country can praise fairness while delivering the opposite, read this. And if you want writing that lingers long after you close the cover, trust me, this one does the job.

I read it from the UK. It still felt far too familiar.


The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison by Jeffrey Reiman, Fourth Edition. A sharp look at inequality, mass incarceration and how poverty becomes punishment. Review by Tommy Kennedy IV.


The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison
Jeffrey Reiman
inequality
mass incarceration
justice system
crime and punishment
working class
book review
social justice books
UK perspective
poverty and crime