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It really is. Of course, this is one issue where there are (thankfully) a fair amount of conservatives that are pro-housing first. However, Trump made homelessness more partisan than it's been previously, and Trumpets are following suit.
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Exactly. Which means it costs the government more money to jail unhoused folks than to actually help them.
It's mostly about optics. Folks just don't want to see it. They don't actually care about unhoused folks.
it wasn't holier than thou, it was why to people bring tangental arguments into something that has nothing to do with the topic or justifications. i'm not pretending I've never done that
Yea but Republicans don't give a shit if the govt is losing money so long as their prison industry lobbyists are gaining it.
They charge the state to provide services to prisons and the state forces prisoners to work for slave wages to produce billions of dollars of goods and services.
US prison workers produce $11bn worth of goods and services a year for pittance
New report by American Civil Liberties Union says incarcerated laborers are either poorly compensated or not at all
www.theguardian.com
The prisoners are the commodity
They charge the state to provide services to prisons and the state forces prisoners to work for slave wages to produce billions of dollars of goods and services.
US prison workers produce $11bn worth of goods and services a year for pittance
New report by American Civil Liberties Union says incarcerated laborers are either poorly compensated or not at all
The prisoners are the commodity
The state, in turn, charges the incarcerated person. They will never get the money back.
I'm still not seeing why the state would do this for money if they are losing money all around. They are doing it for cruelty. To punish unhoused folks.
Because the state is made up of people who get
Every time I see one of these stories pop up, I never understand why more priority isn't placed on creating affordable or free housing with on-site help for mental health, job placement, and just things to help people get back on their feet. I swore that if I ever got flithy rich, I would purchase some abandoned warehouse to fix up for this purpose. But I guess it's just easier to be cruel.
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It's cruelty, certainly. And there's the out of sight out of mind crowd. And there's the paternalistic "let's give them treatment but only in the way I think they deserve it" crowd. And there's some folks who benefit from kickbacks from their friends or donors who run prison contracting services or private for-profit residential treatment facilities.
There are plenty of civilians who would oppose the homeless being housed near them.
Easy to just blame the GOP but laws such as this wouldn't get done if enough people actually opposed such evil.
Easy to just blame the GOP but laws such as this wouldn't get done if enough people actually opposed such evil.
I get that but the private corporations will still lose money on unhoused folks since they won't be taking part in a lot of services, because they have no cash, or they won't get the cash later. The point of the private providers in jails is for them to make money off both the incarcerated person and the state. They would only be making money off of one in this scenario, the state, which guarantees them money already. As a case manager for those with severe mental illnesses, many of which are unhoused, we always lose contact with them when they go to jail, most often due to encampment bans and the like, because they cannot afford to use the services.
Kickbacks only work if there is money to kickback. There's no real money for jailing unhoused folks because they often don't have any at all or very little. They won't be using the services that most other folks in jail will.
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Tennessee has a similar law that goes into effect on July 1st and it makes camping on a public property a felony(!) as if these people aren't dehumanized enough. Pure cruelty/fuck you got mine/prosperity gospel bullshit. The people passing this shit are subhuman trash.
The state being able to sue counties to enforce is some next level evil shit.
The state being able to sue counties to enforce is some next level evil shit.
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So let me clarify from earlier, the taxes come from state and local taxes that are allocated based on a per-person-incarcerated rate. The money doesn't come directly from people who are incarcerated.
I know that's how it works with private prisons but I'm not sure private contracted services work that way in jails.
Money for services does though. Jails only have so much room. If the goal is to get kickbacks, why jail someone who is highly unlikely to use services that will result in you getting kickbacks when you can jail someone who will use said services?
Those aren't the only services a prison needs, though. Lots of companies provide services directly to prisons (supplying everything from toilet paper to food, etc).
I agree except that doesn't mean jailing unhoused folks is worth it for anyone. They will supply those things whether or not you jail unhoused folks.
I do want to point out that we are talking about jails here and not prisons. This is a Class C Misdemeanor with very little jail time attached. This doesn't have to do with prisons.
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In addition, people experiencing homelessness under this law will be compelled to enter camps (built by who?) and compelled to receive mental health and substance use services (provided, again, by who?). So people are going to be forced to participate.
There are certainly larger drivers of punishing people for even experiencing homelessness, but who benefits is also always a worthy question.
Its almost as if they're planning to harvest all these people who are going to potentially get evicted when this housing crisis goes even further south. Almost...
As always, the issue isn't that a problem exists, it's that we see the problem with our eyes.
Ghoulish shit. We already know housing the homeless saves money, and we have a fuckton of vacant housing in this country. But I'm sure the GOP would advocate a literal death squad before even entertaining something close to a compassionate policy here.
Ghoulish shit. We already know housing the homeless saves money, and we have a fuckton of vacant housing in this country. But I'm sure the GOP would advocate a literal death squad before even entertaining something close to a compassionate policy here.
I'm not seeing where under the law they would be compelled to enter these camps. If anything, it means folks will move away from these camps, especially if they undoubtedly have stipulations to enter the encampments.
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It's the classic "we see you experiencing homelessness, you can go to jail or enter this alternative (here - camps that require mental health or substance use service as a condition of being there)." This is very common and what's made law here.
And the slave labor. Forcing prisoners to get paid 5 cents an hour for something the prison is getting paid $15 an hour for.
I doubt up north they feel that much different about it, they just arent as obnoxiously open about it as it is down here.
lmao what is going on in the US?
it gets worse by the day. feels like they are doing a retrogression back to the stone age.
first the abortion law, then making it even easier to own guns even after all what happened recently and now this.
I mean its just a state with this law but its not like making it any better.
it gets worse by the day. feels like they are doing a retrogression back to the stone age.
first the abortion law, then making it even easier to own guns even after all what happened recently and now this.
I mean its just a state with this law but its not like making it any better.
And often, unhoused folks will instead choose neither and find secluded places to go making it even harder to find them especially since the encampment will, very likely, have stipulations to enter and remain.
Slave labor in jails? Jails are not prisons. I think that's the biggest disconnect here.
I misspoke as well when I said prisoner services. I should have only said jail services.
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Yep that's correct on the effect of both jails and congregate - shared living arraignment- shelters. Thankfully, engagement increases pretty substantially once people are offered permanent housing options or even non-congregate shelter (like North Carolina and California's use of motels during the early pandemic). In California, in particular, providers found that it's taken a year or more of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness (who then moved into non-congregate motels) to get stable/feel comfortable enough to really engage with treatment providers. And tons of these folks had "failed" out of 30/60/90 day programs previously.
Thankfully, Housing First approaches like this are evidence-based and generally increase engagement (while reducing homelessness).
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It already gave
It already is
Signed into law by the governor
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Sadly, Missouri's governor signed this into law.
Supreme gaslighting by the anti-evidence-based-practice-of-Housing-First crowd. Housing First is getting people into housing while having teams continuously assertively offer supportive services. Of course, many people thrive just by getting housing.
www.stltoday.com
Supreme gaslighting by the anti-evidence-based-practice-of-Housing-First crowd. Housing First is getting people into housing while having teams continuously assertively offer supportive services. Of course, many people thrive just by getting housing.
Missouri governor signs law aimed at cracking down on homeless camps
The law would strip funding from localities with high homeless populations that refuse to enforce local ordinances that bar the homeless from public camping and obstructing sidewalks.
So this "mental health treatment, substance abuse counseling and support beyond just a roof over their head" will all be provided while in jail and available after release?
Also $750 is beyond ludicrous. The fact there is any financial component is pure evil because "only 15 days" then gets extended/piled on when the fine cannot be paid.
What are some genuine examples of positively helping the homeless/temporarily displaced?
Also $750 is beyond ludicrous. The fact there is any financial component is pure evil because "only 15 days" then gets extended/piled on when the fine cannot be paid.
What are some genuine examples of positively helping the homeless/temporarily displaced?