Content Warning: The source material and this guide contain extensive discussion of mass incarceration, systemic racism, and substance use disorders. They also touch on topics of sexual assault, domestic and child abuse, and hate crimes. This guide obscures the n-word when reproduced in quotes.

In the first few chapters, Bogira quickly alerts the reader to the imbalances in the US justice system. Most of those taken into custody on 26th Street were African American, poor, and, in many instances, dealt with substance use disorders. For those who received a D-bond, their freedom depended on whether they had the money to post the cost of the bond. Many of those taken into custody, such as Walter Williams—someone with one leg, asthma, and a heroin addiction who was on disability—did not have the hundreds of dollars it would cost not to spend the next several nights in jail awaiting their hearings. 

Williams and others brought in for drug possession were in the felony lockup, while domestic batterers sat in the misdemeanor lockup alongside those caught shoplifting grocery store items. Bogira highlights that the state of Illinois considered the possession of “a minute amount of cocaine” to be “a graver offense” than beating up a wife (15), girlfriend, or other woman in the household.