One thing I really enjoy doing, is research, and sharing what I find. And today, I’m sharing The Brennan Center’s groundbreaking report, Revenue Over Public Safety, pulling back the curtain on the deeply troubling reality: our criminal justice system isn’t just about justice.
It’s about money.
Across the country, local governments, police, courts, and private companies are entangled in a web of perverse financial incentives that prioritize revenue over public safety, fairness, or rehabilitation, jeopardizing true public safety.
One major finding is how “user-funded justice” operates: people caught up in the system are forced to pay for their own punishment.
Through mechanisms like fines, fees, civil asset forfeiture, and privatized probation, agencies extract money at every stage, and often from the poorest, most vulnerable communities.
Shockingly, in some jurisdictions, fines and forfeitures account for 20% or more of government revenue, turning law enforcement into a profit-driven enterprise.
The report also details the role of the correctional bed market, where counties and private firms profit by expanding jail capacity to rent out extra “beds,” sometimes building brand new jails solely to cash in on contracts. Federal policies have intensified this, especially in immigration detention, driving incarceration not because of public need, but because empty jail cells have become a commodity.
Perhaps most disturbing are the performance metrics that reward police and prosecutors not for fairness or justice, but for numbers: how many arrests, how many convictions, how many dollars seized. These incentives push local agencies to prioritize easy targets (often poor, often people of color) and minor offenses over genuine public safety threats, reinforcing racial and economic inequalities.
The takeaway? Reform isn’t just about cutting sentences or closing prisons; it’s about dismantling the financial machinery that sustains mass incarceration. As the Brennan Center argues, piecemeal fixes (like reducing fines) won’t be enough if we don’t address the underlying revenue motives. Without structural change, agencies may simply shift to new profit streams, continuing to exploit the very communities they claim to serve.
For advocates, policymakers, and citizens, this report is a call to action: we must align public safety incentives with justice; not with profit.
Read the report here.
