Im gonna guess a big reason crime is way down is legalization of pot. Cops favorite excuse for harassing anyone who didnt "look right" was pot. They need a new victimless "crime" to satiate the shareholders of private prisons.
88I remember talk about banning for profit prisons about a decade or so ago. It didn’t last long. This is one of the things we should be fighting tooth and nail for. Locking people in cages so the rich can get richer is disgusting.
78making government incentives align with the good of their population is the best way to make sure government does their job
prison should be a loss for all, and therefor everyone should want to reduce people in prison. you can’t do that by simply not having prisons, so you need to address root causes
everyone should be healthy. ensuring that governments pay for the eventual health issues ensures they setup preventative programs that help people to stay healthy for their entire lives (alternatively the dark side of this is, for example, smokers die early and therefor cost less because the government doesn’t have to pay for care for as many elderly people for as long so where’s the incentive to support quit programmes?)
22My Uber driver in New Orleans had a strong opinion about for-profit prisons and its impact on the city.
1Pretty sure it was Lyft
1
Even before you get to lobbying to criminalize things that shouldn't be crimes, the fact that anyone pretends to expect for-profit prisons to rehabilitate any criminal is so idiotic.
32What is this, a crime for ants?
3
I don't know that 'one of the main reasons' is fair. For profit prisons are vile cruelty-factories and have pull with lawmakers, but they hold less than 10% of incarcerated individuals. It's a reason, sure. But a main reason?
I think there are two obviously larger reasons:
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There are more homeless people and homeowners see them. If you're a local politician, you can get very far by promising voters that they won't have to see homeless people. Here in "oregon, tolerant oregon" (to quote jello biafra) this is the most common sentiment to hear, and is reflected in policy.
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Growing resource pressure leads to a rise in 'punching down'. As climate crisis, imperial turmoil and the rich taking ever more resources fuel poverty and scarcity, the social pressure to distinguish yourself from those further down the social ladder increases. Hating the weak identifies you as strong, which grows in value as more and more insecurity plagues our society.
23-
But why?
Its the lead:
Edit: Found a better figure.
17Standing still for too long? Go to jail for loitering.
Crossing the street? Go to jail for jaywalking?
Existing next to a cop? Arrested for resisting arrest, straight to jail.
Have any money on you? Money is arrested for looking suspicious.
12Napping in your car?
Not going to believe this, but straight to jail!
2
Crime might be down, but homelessness is way up, or it at least feels that way. They're everywhere these days, even in my sleepy suburb, loitering in parks and sleeping in public greenways, destroying the vegetation and often leaving piles of trash behind.
No, I'm not arguing they deserve to go to jail for that, but you have to agree that it's difficult having empathy for people who keep turning every inch of public property into an eyesore. But I don't think the problem will ever be solved by fingerpointing, because that's just passing the blame around, which ultimately helps no one.
I think there needs to be a bigger discussion about what can be done to help these people regain a sense of purpose in life. It seems to me that most of them are simply severely disillusioned or even repulsed by how our current society works – go to work, pay your bills, rinse and repeat until you reach retirement age. They got tired of the rat race and the constant pressure to perform and are simply choosing to live a primitivist lifestyle instead, but without having any higher goals or ideals to strive for, it's inevitable that they're going to sink back into the mud.
Human beings need to have a sense of purpose, they need to feel useful and appreciated in some way in order to keep making an effort day after day. It's not enough to house them and feed them because without purpose, most of them will still end up turning to alcohol and drugs simply in an effort to pass the time.
12We really need UBI. If people just had enough money to live without NEEDING to work these people would be able to live relatively (compared to how they're living now) comfortable lives without making public spaces awful.
6I think you missed the part of my comment where I said people need to feel useful. Giving them money for doing nothing will never achieve that. While it might help ease the burden of having to work an unfulfilling job just in order to stay alive to continue working, at best that'll buy them some temporary breathing room. But without a sense of purpose, most people will still end up turning to drugs or alcohol simply to pass the time. It's just far easier to distract yourself than it is to face the vast emptiness of living a meaningless existence.
3
I think part of that larger discussion needs to include the array of reasons that people become homeless in the first place, cause it's not just that they lack motivation like your comment suggests. There's mental health reasons, financial reasons, drug addiction, alcoholism, etc. And once you become homeless, it can be difficult to get out of - jobs require that you have reliable transportation, and an address for mailing stuff to you, that you look presentable, and that you don't smell.
A fair amount of homeless people have smartphones nowadays, so I think a system in place where temporary residence can be set up, a bank account set up, access to therapy, and priority access to remote jobs can take place will be a huge step forward in reducing the homeless population. That and also capping interest rates and market values for houses/condos/apartments so that they're actually affordable to the common person.
5Right, that discussion certainly needs to happen, because you simply cannot hope to ever solve a problem without knowing what's causing it, no matter how much resources you throw at it. And perhaps that needs to be a public discussion, because I do think a lot of people out there are willing to help at least in principle, but are often unsure how to go about it. That definitely used to be the case for me because no one ever wanted to talk about it, but after a few very negative experiences where my help wasn't appreciated or even made things worse, I gave up on it for a long time and focused on myself instead, and I have a feeling that this is in fact rather common.
Of course, that did not make the problem go away. In fact, it seems to be getting worse, and clearly we cannot expect any help from the boomers, so it appears to be left to the younger generations to find more effective ways of dealing with it. Sadly, it often seems to devolve into political trench warfare, with people constantly arguing about their preferred strong-arm solutions rather than attempting to find middle ground.
Ultimately, I think it will require much more than political solutions, because those are always temporary and suboptimal. Lasting results will likely require a complete change in culture – meaning a society built on values that people are actually willing to sacrifice for, and that can only happen at the grassroots level.
2
I just found out you have to PAY for your prison stay. $50 dollars a day. What the actual hell?!
9Yeah that's real fucked up, my buddy's cousin is going away for 5 years and I calculated that on the lowest end, he'd probably be paying at least $73,000 by the time he leaves
9sadistic horrible place
2
don't forget the police! We need an outlet for our violent people, and some of them are too cowardly to join the military. Those guys need people to beat on and hurt, and if crime's down, they're gonna turn to other shit to get their kicks, and we don't need them turning into pyromaniacs or terrorists just because they're bored.
8Orphan crushing machine go brrrrr
5Private prisons only house 8% of US inmates.
5In that case, it's 8% too many.
5They're still not the main issue.
The main issue is the contracts for public prisons.
2
But if public facilities are at capacity, any further surplus will go to them. 2% more prisoners would boost their head counts by 25%.
5
Wait, what? Shut up, stop looking at that, go have more kids. We need more cattle.
2I don’t know. I’d bet you going to jail as a homeless person would be a step up, as they’d have a guaranteed bed, shower, and 3 meals a day. No, criminalizing acts of being homeless is more about punishing them for their existence, and making their lives more miserable; not better.
-15Not all homeless people are jobless and may have been displaced for one reason or another. Jailing them ensures they won't have a job and can't get one in the future
26And nearly all states have pay-to-stay policies that deplete their resources for securing housing when they are released
12
Well, except for locking them in a place with actual violent criminals… and violent prison guards. Jail is a pretty fucked up place, even if you get 3 hots and a cot.
22Last I heard from a recent release from my state, they get an individual cereal at 7 and a bologna sandwich at 3.
2
Slave owner logic
5Jails are dehumanizing and horrible places. I would rather starve than live in jail.
Not to mention how having a criminal record pretty much destroys any hope of ever getting out of homelessness. Nobody will hire you, nobody will rent to you.
4
