I uncovered an email from an SEC regulator talking about investigating Goldman Sachs for its mortgage securities fraud, and he said 'we have to remember these are good people who made one mistake,' and that is a deeply and profoundly pernicious attitude to take, that the Goldman Sachs banker stumbled into a mistake, but is fundamentally good. Suffice it to say, the legal enforcement apparatus in this country does not look at young African America drug dealers are fundamentally good people who have made one mistake.

Journalist Jesse Eisinger examines the Justice Department's (non)handling of corporate crime - from the class and ideological affinity between the Feds and their executive counterparts, to the political consequences of Wall Street impunity - creating a transactional justice system for those who can afford it, and mass incarceration for those who can't.

Jesse is author of the new book The Chickenshit Club: Why the Justice Department Fails to Prosecute Executives from Simon & Schuster.