Some news stories just make you lose all faith in humanity.

According to the office of Cobb County prosecutor Barry Morgan, Nelson – who had no car at the time – committed vehicular homicide by attempting to cross a five-lane highway with her three kids to get to her apartment, after being let off the bus.

An Atlanta-area mother who lost her four-year-old son to a hit and run while crossing the street has been charged and convicted of vehicular homicide.

Perhaps this is not surprising:

Nelson, 30 and African-American, was convicted on the charge this week by six jurors who were not her peers: All were middle-class whites, and none had ever taken a bus in metro Atlanta.

I can’t even describe how disgusted I feel that I live in a country which punishes low-income women to this degree. I’ve written before about the relationship between transportation, poverty and stress–but this case takes it to the most absurd degree.

As this post points out, it would be much cheaper and more just to, I don’t know, put in crosswalks at bus stops located on busy highways, rather than putting an innocent women in prison? The culture of criminalization, particularly of low-income people of color, has risen to such heights in this country. What good does putting Nelson in jail do? She has already suffered the worst punishment–the loss of her child.