“Earl L. Harris did not owe child support when he was sent to prison in 1997 for selling marijuana. He now concedes that dealing drugs may have been a stupid move for a new father.
“But Harris, then 19, had grown up poor and dropped out of school, and the only legitimate work available to young, [B]lack men like him, he says, was a temp job without benefits.
“‘Nobody was hiring,’ he said. ‘I got into hustling because I wanted to support my baby.'”