• fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      50·
      4 months ago

      Crime has been trending downwards for decades now. We had a bump around the pandemic for fairly obvious reasons, but it’s been back to trending downwards again.

  • smokin_shinobi@lemmy.worldEnglish
    75·
    4 months ago

    I 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.

    • Pup Biru@aussie.zoneEnglish
      22·
      4 months ago

      making 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?)

  • ceenote@lemmy.worldEnglish
    31·
    4 months ago

    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.

  • Hegar@kbin.social
    26·
    4 months ago

    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:

    1. 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.

    2. 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.

  • space@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    11·
    4 months ago

    Standing 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.

    • yokonzo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      4 months ago

      Yeah 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

  • Lightor@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    4 months ago

    Wait, what? Shut up, stop looking at that, go have more kids. We need more cattle.

  • dohpaz42@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    4 months ago

    I 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.

    • jjagaimo@lemmy.caEnglish
      26·
      4 months ago

      Not 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

      • greenhorn@lemm.eeEnglish
        12·
        4 months ago

        And nearly all states have pay-to-stay policies that deplete their resources for securing housing when they are released

    • eltrain123@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21·
      4 months ago

      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.

      • Maeve@kbin.social
        2·
        4 months ago

        Last I heard from a recent release from my state, they get an individual cereal at 7 and a bologna sandwich at 3.

    • space@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      4·
      4 months ago

      Jails 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.