B
Bill_7154
Guest
I have been homelss. I have never been to prison or done anything to warrant such a sanction but having briefly lived in homeless shelters 20 years ago, and worked in the human services field for the past 20 years I have worked with many people, and know of many people, who have. I have also developed a point of view on how the gov’t prisons and gov’t homeless shelters effectively ‘shield’ people from facing their neighbors (while their neighbors are forced to pay for their room and board) while also enabling negative behaviors that are both self defeating and harmful to the public.
First let me say, I am not talking about abolishing prisons. Or not holding people accoutable for their actions. Quite the contrary.
As it stand we have a ‘for profit’ prison system that actively lobbies for more laws and longer prion sentences such as mandatory minimum sentences where it may not always suit the crime.
In general this is what I am talking about:
People who are addicted to drugs often eventually resort to crime to support their habbit. They eventually get caught and sent to prison. Having burnt all their bridges when it comes to friends and family they get released and move into gov’t shelters where they continue to do crimes to fund their drug habits, get caught, then go back to prison. This costs money. Taxpayers pay.
And the individuals who engage in this behavior have this gov’t safety net where they know they will always have a roof over their heads, free food, clothing, etc as they continue to do crimes such as stealing to fund their drug habits. And since the money is paid for with taxes, they are able to do this behavior without having to sort of ‘confront’ their neighbor or community where they might be held to account for their ways, and even possibly receive assistance to get on the right path if they were.
For example, if people didn’t have gov’t homeless shelters to ‘hide’ in once realeased from prison, but another system were in place, such as a private charity where they went to live and had rules and regulations to abide by, while also being given jobs where they worked in the community such as doing landscaping or painting the houses of poor widdows, etc while also having to pay part of their income to live where they lived for room and board and also paid a fee that would be used to help the community in some way, things may work better for them in the long run, and also the people they victimize.
Possibly there would be poeple who wanted such a well run crew of former prisoners to mow their lawns, knowing they were actively working to not only rehabilitate themselves, but were contributing to their own room and board and also paying money into a fund to be used to help the very poor such as orphans or such. And possibly such customers may come out of their houses and offer words of encouragement and support to these individuals giving them hope that they could change their ways. Maybe such customers would have other things to say to them, who knows.
But as it stands now, they go to jail (for most anyone this seems like a terrible way to live and we all avoid behaviors that would put us there, but for people who have been there 2-3 times or more, or grew up as orphans, or in child jails or whatever, this seems normal to some degree. The same goes for living in homeless shelters. People become accustomed to them “3 hots and a cot”.
The way things are now, they get released from jail and can hide in plain sight from the public, do not have to do anything to help themselves, and get a free ride (a poor one, but everything is relative). I would like to see many changes to the status quo and this post is just to point out that gov’t run jails and shelters are paid for by hard working poeple, and to what effect? The cycle of crime continues. If there were less gov’t shelters and more private charities to work with people coming out of jail (let’s say non violent people, or minor violence, not major crimials here) with work/living programs where the work ethic was enstilled in them, and people who care about helping people got involved to one extent or another, I think more poeple could change their ways. They would have to confront their ‘neighbor’, something they do not have to do now (but they get to live off their neighbors hard earned money via taxes paying for the jails and gov’t run shelthers). So they learn to avoid shame. And they are not put in a position to meet role models, people to offer a word of encouragement as part of a comprehensive program where they learn to support themselves and have to contribute back to society in a way over and above going to jail.
Jail is like a crime school. They make connections with other criminals and become more a part of that subgroup of society. Then see them in the shelthers and continue on and on.
I think there are better ways of doing things. I don’t have the power to implement them but want to know what other people’s thoughts are on this post.
Thanks
First let me say, I am not talking about abolishing prisons. Or not holding people accoutable for their actions. Quite the contrary.
As it stand we have a ‘for profit’ prison system that actively lobbies for more laws and longer prion sentences such as mandatory minimum sentences where it may not always suit the crime.
In general this is what I am talking about:
People who are addicted to drugs often eventually resort to crime to support their habbit. They eventually get caught and sent to prison. Having burnt all their bridges when it comes to friends and family they get released and move into gov’t shelters where they continue to do crimes to fund their drug habits, get caught, then go back to prison. This costs money. Taxpayers pay.
And the individuals who engage in this behavior have this gov’t safety net where they know they will always have a roof over their heads, free food, clothing, etc as they continue to do crimes such as stealing to fund their drug habits. And since the money is paid for with taxes, they are able to do this behavior without having to sort of ‘confront’ their neighbor or community where they might be held to account for their ways, and even possibly receive assistance to get on the right path if they were.
For example, if people didn’t have gov’t homeless shelters to ‘hide’ in once realeased from prison, but another system were in place, such as a private charity where they went to live and had rules and regulations to abide by, while also being given jobs where they worked in the community such as doing landscaping or painting the houses of poor widdows, etc while also having to pay part of their income to live where they lived for room and board and also paid a fee that would be used to help the community in some way, things may work better for them in the long run, and also the people they victimize.
Possibly there would be poeple who wanted such a well run crew of former prisoners to mow their lawns, knowing they were actively working to not only rehabilitate themselves, but were contributing to their own room and board and also paying money into a fund to be used to help the very poor such as orphans or such. And possibly such customers may come out of their houses and offer words of encouragement and support to these individuals giving them hope that they could change their ways. Maybe such customers would have other things to say to them, who knows.
But as it stands now, they go to jail (for most anyone this seems like a terrible way to live and we all avoid behaviors that would put us there, but for people who have been there 2-3 times or more, or grew up as orphans, or in child jails or whatever, this seems normal to some degree. The same goes for living in homeless shelters. People become accustomed to them “3 hots and a cot”.
The way things are now, they get released from jail and can hide in plain sight from the public, do not have to do anything to help themselves, and get a free ride (a poor one, but everything is relative). I would like to see many changes to the status quo and this post is just to point out that gov’t run jails and shelters are paid for by hard working poeple, and to what effect? The cycle of crime continues. If there were less gov’t shelters and more private charities to work with people coming out of jail (let’s say non violent people, or minor violence, not major crimials here) with work/living programs where the work ethic was enstilled in them, and people who care about helping people got involved to one extent or another, I think more poeple could change their ways. They would have to confront their ‘neighbor’, something they do not have to do now (but they get to live off their neighbors hard earned money via taxes paying for the jails and gov’t run shelthers). So they learn to avoid shame. And they are not put in a position to meet role models, people to offer a word of encouragement as part of a comprehensive program where they learn to support themselves and have to contribute back to society in a way over and above going to jail.
Jail is like a crime school. They make connections with other criminals and become more a part of that subgroup of society. Then see them in the shelthers and continue on and on.
I think there are better ways of doing things. I don’t have the power to implement them but want to know what other people’s thoughts are on this post.
Thanks