Racially Charged
America’s Misdemeanor Problem.
Released in 2021, America’s Misdemeanor Problem exposes how our country’s history of racial injustice evolved into an enormous abuse of criminal justice power. 13 million people a year—most of them poor and people of color—are abused by this system.
People arrested for minor crimes are swept through courts where defendants often lack lawyers, judges process cases in mere minutes, and nearly everyone pleads guilty. This misdemeanor machine starts punishing people long before they are convicted; it punishes the innocent; and it punishes conduct that never should have been a crime. As a result, vast numbers of Americans–most of them poor and people of color–are stigmatized as criminals, impoverished through fines and fees, and stripped of drivers’ licenses, jobs, and housing.
Through first-person accounts of those charged under the Black Codes of the Reconstruction era paralleled with the outrageous stories of people trapped in the system today, the film brings to light the unfolding of a powerful engine of profits and racial inequality.
Through criminalizing and profiting off poverty, the misdemeanor system is an $80 billion dollar industry designed to generate revenue for administrators and companies that profit off the system. This film provides historical context and examines America’s history of racist oppression.
Free for all to watch on Youtube. Go to misdemeanorfilm.org.
