Article Analysis The Lockdown , And Sarah Smarsh s...

Author Bryan Stevenson (2014) writes, â€Å"The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned†(p.18). According to the non-profit, Feeding America (2016), in 2015, 43.1 million, or 13.5%, of people in the United States were impoverished. Poverty is a vicious cycle, trapping people and families for generations. The inability to escape poverty is due in part to difficult class mobility in the U.S. but also because certain factors reinforce the idea and state of poverty. Bryan Stevenson’s bestseller Just Mercy, Lindsey Cook’s article â€Å"U.S. Education: Still Separate and Unequal†, Michelle Alexander’s excerpt â€Å"The Lockdown†, and Sarah Smarsh’s â€Å"Poor Teeth† all explore the idea of poverty and the systems that sustain it. While all four readings focus on poverty differently and explore it using different techniques, they all share similar big pict ure ideas about how poverty is fortified through systematic, societal, and psychological efforts. Bryan Stevenson’s 2014 book, Just Mercy, is about â€Å"getting closer to mass incarceration and extreme punishment in America† (Stevenson, 2014, p.14). Stevenson focuses mainly on blatant racism and classism in the poor south by detailing a case he worked on during the 1980s. Throughout the book, Stevenson also analyzes the discrimination poor women, children, and mentally ill people face that often lands them on death row. The 2015 article â€Å"U.S. Education: Still Separate and