America in its institutions and in its judicial system, clearly believes in the old adage, "out of sight, out of mind", as it imprisons day after day, thousands of civilians, for simply being poor. Not too surprisingly, dong so for these unfortunates rapidly creates a downward spiral because once any individual is taken before the criminal justice system, he is no longer free, no longer able to meet family, school, or job commitments, as well as not being able to pay bills or other debt obligations, and ultimately will have placed upon his person, either the conviction of a criminal infraction, which will effectively marginalize him from gainful employment, or will at a minimum, have suffered massive inconvenience and have an arrest record attached to his name.
It should not be a crime to simply be poor in America, yet the indigent that have the audacity to be out on the public streets, are often treated as criminals, and have pressed upon them by legal authorities, the crime of loitering, or vagrancy, or panhandling, or any other crime that the municipality police can foist upon them. It isn't necessarily that the police are the bad guys, although often they are, and it isn't necessarily that the justice system is corrupt, uncaring, and discriminatory, although often it is; it boils down more to the fundamental practice that "undesirables" are okay and fine, as long as they are not out in the public and thereby making certain businesses, families, and other folks, nervous.
The thing about loitering, vagrancy, panhandling, littering, outstanding warrants, an inability to pay traffic fines or other monetary or similar violations, is that placing a person behind bars and making them be a cog within our justice system, does not in most instances, provide true justice to the person being held, nor does it provide a real service to the community at large. The poor in our streets are all our brothers, and deserve better than being essentially branded for life as incorrigible, unstable, unworthy, and dismissed as if they are vermin.
If a person with some money or someone having access to money, is picked up on one of these minor offenses which necessitates an arraignment and the posting of bail, he will after some major inconvenience in dealing with the criminal justice system, and having his freedom taken away from him, be released back out into the public, if it is a non-weekend in probably less than twenty-four hours, through making bail, or through his own recognizance, or perhaps even have the charges dropped, but in the meanwhile, during those twenty-four hours, he hasn't been able to take care of obligations at home, or go to work, to which his unexcused absence may necessitate termination, but at least upon release he is now back on the outside which enables him to have more options to rectify things. A poor man, on the other hand, that cannot make his bail, or isn't issued freedom on his own recognizance, will be stuck in jail, for perhaps a considerable period of time, for some minor offense, that should never have necessitated jail time to begin with.
The criminal code book is endlessly long with so many tributaries, twists and turns that just about anything that certain designated undesirables do can be construed as being some sort of crime. What this really amounts to is that if you are poor and are engaged by the police, your freedom and your choices will often be left in the hands of the police officer that is dealing with you. Often times, police agencies have cute little sayings, such as "to protect and to serve"; recognize this reality, that the police most times when they deal with the poor aren't there to protect you, nor will they gladly serve you; in reality the police will often do exactly what the powers-to-be have told them to do to people like you.