Key Questions

• How does wealth shape legal outcomes?

• Is punishment in America distributed fairly across social classes?

• Can someone be too poor to defend themselves?

Justice for Sale?

In theory, the law treats everyone equally. But in practice, money often determines:

• Who gets bail and who stays in jail

• Who gets top lawyers and who gets overworked public defenders

• How long cases take—and how much pressure there is to plead guilty

This raises a difficult truth: Justice in America is often pay-to-play.

The Bail Problem

People accused of crimes are often held in jail before trial simply because they can’t afford bail. They may:

• Lose jobs, housing, or custody of their children

• Plead guilty just to go home—even if they’re innocent

• Face longer sentences for exercising their right to trial

Meanwhile, the wealthy can post bail and prepare their defense in freedom.

Wealthy Defendants: A Different System?

When rich defendants face charges, they often:

• Hire private investigators, jury consultants, and elite lawyers

• Use legal delays to wear down prosecution

• Settle civil cases with money instead of going to court

• Receive lighter sentences or probation for the same crimes that send poor people to prison

This creates a dual system of justice—one for the rich, another for everyone else.

Case Study: The “Affluenza” Defense

In 2013, a wealthy Texas teen killed four people in a drunk driving accident. His lawyers argued he suffered from “affluenza”—a condition where extreme wealth prevented him from understanding consequences.

He received probation instead of prison.

Would the same defense work for a poor teenager?

Thought Exercise

Imagine a country where:

• A billionaire steals $1 million through fraud and gets a fine

• A homeless person steals $50 of food and goes to jail for six months

Would you call that country “just”?

Now compare that to the U.S. criminal justice system. What do you see?

Behind the Numbers

• 80% of criminal defendants in the U.S. can’t afford their own attorney

• Pretrial detention is strongly correlated with guilty pleas—even for the innocent

• Sentences for white-collar crimes (committed mostly by the wealthy) are consistently shorter than sentences for street crimes

Discussion Prompts

• Should bail be eliminated for non-violent crimes?

• Is legal representation a right—or a luxury?

• How can society ensure that money doesn’t buy justice?

Suggested Readings

• Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

• Punishment Without Crime by Alexandra Natapoff

• Reports from the ACLU and Equal Justice Initiative on wealth-based discrimination

Next Lesson Preview

Lesson 3 – The Prison System: Rehabilitation or Profit Machine?

We’ll examine how incarceration operates—not just as punishment, but as a business.

“In our justice system, it’s better to be rich and guilty than poor and innocent.”