If poverty tends to criminalize people, it is also true that criminalization inexorably impoverishes them.

If you read one thing today, let it be this perfect Times Op-Ed called Is It Now a Crime to Be Poor?

In it, the incomparable BARBARA EHRENREICH observes:

""The viciousness of the official animus toward the indigent can be breathtaking. A few years ago, a group called Food Not Bombs started handing out free vegan food to hungry people in public parks around the nation. A number of cities, led by Las Vegas, passed ordinances forbidding the sharing of food with the indigent in public places, and several members of the group were arrested. A federal judge just overturned the anti-sharing law in Orlando, Fla., but the city is appealing. And now Middletown, Conn., is cracking down on food sharing."