After 20 years teaching in a Northern Virginia jail, I've come to the conclusion that most people incarcerated are there because they are poor.
@socialiststeve6 Let's look at the root of the problem. Are they poor because they made poor decisions like abusing drugs and alcohol? Did they drop out of school? Is it a generational thing? There are many factors that lead to people being impoverished. Sometimes, they are poor by poor choices.
@socialiststeve6 Almost without exception the root cause of all our societal ills is poverty. Completely unnecessary.
@socialiststeve6 I’m gonna go out on a limb and suggest that not one person in prison was convicted of being poor. IJS
@socialiststeve6 If they remain poor, then perhaps it due to making poor decisions? Much like the way folks wind up in jail....poor decisions (usually).
@socialiststeve6 Well...yes, but the social toll of being poor (bad education, likely family issues, many other side effects besides the basic of not having $$$) have, in fact, led many of them to make bad decisions that hurt other people and which deserve jail time. So, it's not that simple...
@socialiststeve6 They're poor because their parents split up. Almost every one of them came from a badly broken home.
@socialiststeve6 Nail on the head, Stephen. The pathology of poverty is well known to academics and anyone who studied the subject or even had a casual interest in people. The pathology of US politics is, alas, less well known. They simply do not care about “the little people” - only about war.
@socialiststeve6 Not buying it. My Dad and his siblings was raised up dirt poor in the 40's and never went to jail. People are in jail because of decisions they made. People are NOT in jail for first offences. It takes years of lawlessness to be in prison. Stop making excuses.
@socialiststeve6 @Indieafterbern Yep. Being poor forces humans to do stupid things to survive. In a winner takes all economy, more and more poor are inevitable. Therefore more crime. If we had an economy based on value instead of debt and greed it would be a world of happy neighbors.