Class and the courts

There, perhaps, is no moment in life when the difference in class is more apparent than when you are accused of a crime. The wealthy hire the best lawyer they can. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided. But, the kind of attorney you get in Michigan all depends on where you live.

So, imagine this. You’ve been accused of a crime. You know you didn’t do it. But, the police think you did. You cannot afford a lawyer. So, you are appointed a lawyer. In a few counties, it might be someone from a public defenders office. In other counties, your lawyer might be someone who was appointed by a judge- which some see as a conflict. The lawyer got the job because of the judge which puts the lawyer’s independence in question. In almost half of Michigan counties, it might be a lawyer who put in the lowest bid for a contract with the county. Critics say for most counties, not enough resources are provided to a public defense lawyer to put together a proper defense.

“We are out to prove what everybody knows and that is the public defense system in this state is broken.”

That’s Michael J. Steinberg with the Michigan chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU has a case before the courts to get adequate legal defense for low-income people charged with a crime.

In a 2008 report, the National Legal Aid and Defender Association found Michigan ranks 44th of the 50 states in public defense funding. That means only five states spend less.

In fact, state government doesn’t pay for public defense. Michigan requires each county to pay the cost. And for most counties, it’s just not a big priority.

http://www.michiganradio.org/post/class-and-courts

Michigan Radio: Bridging the Gap Between Benton Harbor and St., Joseph

We've been talking a lot about class, what it means, and how we define it.

We took a trip to St. Joseph and Benton Harbor. They’re called the Twin Cities, but they're different.

In Benton Harbor forty-three percent of families live below the poverty line.

In St. Joseph it’s six percent.

And, families in St. Joseph earn more than twice as much as their neighbors across the river.

www.michiganradio.org/post/bridging-gap-between-benton-harbor-and-st-joseph

Tallying the homeless Berrien consortium cites progress

Five years into a plan to end homelessness in Berrien County, many people are still without a permanent place to live.

But over that period, a coalition of more than 50 agencies and nonprofit organizations working as the Housing Resource Network of Southwest Michigan made important strides to help people who are on the street or in danger of losing their homes.

The gains were made despite a struggling economy, HRN official Alysia Babcock said during a progress review Wednesday at First Church of God, but a lot of work remains to be done.

A point-in-time count of the homeless in Berrien County in January tallied 594 people. The number included 363 children, 65 disabled people, 25 who had been subjected to domestic violence and 15 veterans.

Babcock, executive director of Emergency Shelter Services in Benton Harbor, presented data showing that homeless children were found in all K-12 school districts in the county.

"That was an eye-opener for us," Babcock told the group of people representing agencies, nonprofits and religious groups that joined to combat homelessness. "These numbers, I think, are pretty shocking."

The count, done at one point of time around the country, may have overlooked some homeless people in Berrien because the winter cold weather drives many into any available building.

www.heraldpalladium.com/articles/2011/11/17/local_news/7315990.txt

Michigan Is One of a few States Raising Taxes on Working Poor

Michigan is among just a handful of states raising taxes on low-income working families while cutting taxes for other groups, the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities said in a report released Tuesday.

The Washington-based group notes that Michigan, New Jersey and Wisconsin all have scaled back tax credits for low-income workers in recent years while cutting business taxes. In Michigan's case, low-income families will see their tax breaks shrink starting next year by about $260 million annually while businesses will get a $1.1 billion tax break starting in January and a $1.7 billion tax break the year after.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder originally wanted to eliminate the state Earned Income Tax Credit, but agreed to reduce it from 20 percent of the federal credit to 6 percent for tax year 2012. He said earlier this year that the state needed to make cuts to balance the budget and noted no cuts were being made in Medicaid programs providing health care to low-income working families. He also has said the business tax cuts will create jobs.

But the Michigan League for Human Services, which opposed shrinking the EITC, said the change is bad policy.

www.cnbc.com/id/45314876

Additional information and the full report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities can be found at:

www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3620

Class segregation

The divide between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ is not just a matter of bank accounts. More and more it determines where you live.

We’ve all heard about racial segregation. Whites live one place. Blacks live in another. There are all kinds of ethnic neighborhoods. But in the last 40 years, racial-ethnic segregation has moderated somewhat- although it is still high. But socioeconomic segregation, segregation by class, is on the rise.

“Well, the biggest change is, of course, the shift in the income distribution. We’ve become a much more unequal society in the past three decades."

Douglas Massey is a Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton. He was the lead author of a study about this trend toward class segregation which was published in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. He says in the past few years, you can really see the shift as people lose their homes to foreclosure and have to move.

“As fewer and fewer people are in the middle and more and more people are in the extremes, housing markets tend to produce higher levels of social class segregation, higher levels of segregation on the basis of income.”

Some people are moving on up and others are moving to the wrong side of the tracks.

In some areas, it gets to the point that teachers, sales clerks, baristas, the guy who puts tires on those nice cars can’t afford to live in the towns where they work. They live in less affluent communities and have to commute to work which adds to their financial burden.

So how did we get to this greater divide between classes? It started with racial segregation.

http://www.michiganradio.org/post/class-segregation

Racial Divide Persists in Michigan's Infant Mortality Rate

For nearly 30 years, Michigan has been reducing its infant mortality rate. Still, as of 2009, a black infant in Michigan is three times more likely to die than a white baby, according to the latest statistics from 2009.

In fact, the mortality rate for black infants in Michigan for 2009 (15.5 per 1,000 live births) is roughly the same today as for white infants in 1973 (15.2). In the last decade, infant mortality rates for white infants have decreased from 5.9 to 5.4.

“We’re glad that our infant mortality rates have gone down, but we are still ranked 40th in the nation, which is nothing to be proud of,” said Jack Kresnak, president and CEO of Michigan’s Children, a nonprofit advocacy group for children and families. “We have a serious issue here. Babies of color are not seeing their first birthdays.”

Since 1973, the infant mortality rate for black infants in Michigan has been cut by about half. In the same period, infant mortality rates for whites have gone down by about two-thirds. The statewide infant death rate in 2009 was 7.5 deaths per 1,000 births. Michigan suffered 881 infant deaths out of 117,309 live births that year, according to figures from the Michigan Department of Community Health.

bridgemi.com/2011/11/racial-divide-persists-in-michigans-infant-mortality-rate/

Paid-leave benefits lagging for working moms in US

New census data show nearly half of working women who give birth are forgoing paychecks to care for their newborns as employers become selective about granting paid leave.

Lower-educated mothers are nearly four times more likely than college graduates to be denied paid maternity benefits, the widest the gap has been over the past 50 years.

The analysis released Thursday by the Census Bureau highlights the patchwork of work and family arrangements in the U.S., which, unlike most countries, lacks a federal policy on paid parental leave.

The study finds that while more companies since the 1960s have been offering paid leave to women for time off for pregnancy, birth and child care, the share of first-time mothers who received such benefits more recently has leveled off.

www.wwmt.com/articles/working-1398140-paid-leave.html

Global income inequality: Where the U.S. ranks

It's no surprise that top earners in America make a heck of a lot more than middle- and lower-income Joes.

But the disparity is greater here than in most developed nations.

The U.S. has a higher level of income inequality than Europe, as well as Canada, Australia and South Korea, according to data gathered by the World Bank.

And, while many nations have seen income inequality rise within their borders, the United States has experienced a more rapid increase in recent decades, widening the wealth gap even more.

"The top 1% in the U.S. really receive much more than in Western European countries," said Branko Milanovic, an economist with the World Bank and author of "The Haves and the Have-Nots."

America ranks in the bottom third of the list of 90 countries that Milanovic compiled, which is mainly based on 2008 data of per capita income or consumption in each nation.

money.cnn.com/2011/11/08/news/economy/global_income_inequality/index.htm

Food pantries face constant struggle to meet growing demand

Food pantries across Michigan are struggling to keep up with demand as more people come to them in need.

In Kalamazoo County there are 26 different grocery pantries open on various days of the week, all catering to local families in need.

Each day starts the same way at the more than two dozen pantries in Kalamazoo County, with calls coming in from people looking for help.

“They are entering lots of new households, people who are between this job and the last, it's taken longer to find that job and we know that everybody's got to eat again tomorrow,” said Anne Lipsey, Executive Director, Kalamazoo Loaves and Fishes.

The St. Augustine Pantry is open three days a week and also opens an extra day at the end of the month when the need is greatest. When a family comes in, workers use a key to figure out how many items they get, depending on the number of people they have to feed.

www.wwmt.com/articles/food-1398005-pantries-growing.html

For many middle-income families, college is no longer within reach

A smaller percentage of middle-income undergraduate students is attending the nation's elite public universities, raising concerns among experts and college officials that years of rising costs and tuition increases are putting top-tier educations at top public schools beyond the reach of some families.

At the University of Michigan, the percentage of freshmen with family incomes of $40,000-$100,000 fell 13% from 2005 to 2009, a national survey tracking incoming freshmen found.

U-M says it's working to reverse the trend and says there's a misperception that the school is unaffordable. Officials say U-M has increased financial aid the past several years. "We've done everything possible to keep access for all students," President Mary Sue Coleman said.

The national trend and other data indicate many middle-income families are trapped in a bind: They make too much to qualify for significant financial aid for their children, but not enough to pay increasing college costs at some public schools without more help.

www.freep.com/article/20111106/NEWS06/111060474/For-many-middle-income-families-college-no-longer-within-reach?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE