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.

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.

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.

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.

But why?

Its the lead:

Edit: Found a better figure.

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.

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.

Orphan crushing machine go brrrrr

I just found out you have to PAY for your prison stay. $50 dollars a day. What the actual hell?!

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

I’ve seen this episode of Stargate.

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.