Make that make sense. People have to quit blaming the poor for being poor.
it’s literally sooo much more expensive to incarcerate people than it is to house and feed them. In my state it costs $90,000 to incarcerate a single person for one year. $90,000. Other states are even more expensive. for comparison, my rent is $1,050 a month. The annual cost of my housing is $12,600.
A word of advice for people advocating for criminal Justice reform to republicans and people who literally do not care about human rights: use these numbers. Republicans and conservatives and even moderate Dems don’t actually care about moral appeals of why it’s wrong to criminalize homelessness. They do however care about how much tax money this would cost to enforce. It makes financial sense to NOT incarcerate people. (Obviously it makes moral sense too, but most people don’t actually care about that)
It's so much more expensive to put people in jail. If they are in the custody of the state (jail or prison), they have to be given food, clothes, heating, and healthcare. Most of the people who are homeless have health problems--either problems that caused them to lose their homes, trauma from being on the street, substance abuse disorder, anything. The average person experiencing homelessness is much sicker than the average American.
At this point, the largest healthcare provider in the U.S. is the Department of Justice. And legally speaking, they have to provide care. (Granted, a lot of places will avoid that as much as possible, but ideally, they get what treatment they need.) There is a giant prison in Rochester, MN, because it's next to the Mayo Clinic. It's where people with rare and serious illnesses go. My old psych prof worked there part time, providing counseling. He saw people who committed horrendous crimes getting surgeries and chemo. To be clear, prisoners should be getting surgeries and chemo. They deserve healthcare. But it's jarring to hear that a murderer got a tumor taken off his lung while his victims' families have to pay out of pocket for therapy.
I also need to point out that if you're giving people housing, you're just giving them housing. Maybe you include heating, water, and electricity. You aren't giving them clothes (uniforms). You aren't paying guards. You aren't installing metal detectors and cameras. You are just giving them a place to live. That's obviously much, much cheaper than prison.
I am horrified that I have to resort to spelling this out, but yes, this is the only argument Republicans will listen to. Give them the cost-benefit analysis
They won't listen to that argument because the GOP's goal isn't to reduce tax payer spending. It's to create a white christian supremacist state. Prison has been used to keep black Americans enslaved since the union won the civ war and the entire "think of the taxpayer" line has always been used as a cover for racism. Add in prosperity gospel, which implies that the poor aren't adequately pious and thus deserve to suffer, and you have a party that will spend as much money as it takes to punish anyone who isn't wealthy, christian, and white.
It makes sense when you realize government spending isn't the key issue republicans want you to think that it is.
