Vanita Gupta: The criminalization of poverty

Vanita Gupta, an Indian/American, heads the civil rights division of the Department of Justice.

VANITA GUPTA, the head of the civil rights division of the Department of Justice, compared Flint, Michigan to Ferguson, Mo., in a speech she gave Friday (Feb. 19) at a two-day symposium on the criminalization of poverty held at the University of Michigan Law School.

"In communities across America today, from Ferguson, Mo., to Flint, Mich., too many people — especially young people and people of color – live trapped by the weight of poverty and injustice," said Gupta. "They suffer the disparate impact of policies driven by, at best, benign neglect, and at worst, deliberate indifference. And they see how discrimination stacks the deck against them."

Before he left office in 2014, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said that Gupta, who at the time was deputy legal director for the ACLU, had “spent her entire career working to ensure that our nation lives up to its promise of equal justice for all.” He also praised her ability to work across the aisle.

“We come from a different side of spectrum than ACLU,” says Marc Levin, policy director for the conservative criminal justice reform organization Right on Crime. “But, I’ve found her interested in identifying areas where we can work together.”

The 41-year-old lawyer was born in Philadelphia to Indian/American immigrant parents and later went on to Yale University and New York University's Law School. 

Her most famous case was also one of her first. While working for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in 2003, Gupta successfully got a judge to overturn the convictions of 38 African Americans from Tulia, Texas after they were wrongfully arrested in a drug sting.

Gupta led the DOJ investigation of the Ferguson police department after a police officer fatally shot the unarmed Michael Brown, and African American teenager. The DOJ file suit on Feb. 10 against the City of Ferguson in order to force the city to institute reform in its policing policies.

The civil-rights lawsuit against Ferguson alleges the city routinely violated residents’ rights and misused law enforcement to generate revenue — a practice the government said was “ongoing and pervasive.”

Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Ferguson’s decision to reject the agreement left the department no choice except to sue.

"As we discuss the inequality that pervades our criminal justice system – a defining civil rights challenge of the 21stcentury – we must also acknowledge the broader inequalities we face in other segments of society," she said at the symposium. 

RELATED: Read Vanita Gupta's complete speech

"Discrimination in so many areas – from the classroom, to the workforce, to the marketplace – perpetuates the inequality we see in our justice system. And for those already living paycheck-to-paycheck, a single incident – whether an arrest by the police or a fine by the court – can set off a downward spiral. It can lead to a cycle of profound problems that ruin lives and tear apart families. Problems like losing your health care, your job, your children or your home."

"Too many people grow up in our country and view justice as the provenance of the wealthy. They hear about the ideal of equal justice, but they find that in reality, it feels distant from the grasp of their community – far off and out of reach.

"Together," she concluded, "we must fulfill the fundamental promise of America – a promise that is written throughout our Constitution and woven into the fabric of our nation – so that we can make equal justice, equal opportunity and fundamental fairness a reality for all."

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