FROM THE STREET TO THE PRISONS

A recent PBS special ‘The New Asylums’ reported that 500,000 mentally ill are incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails. Many arrive there through a judicial process that prosecutes them for shoplifting, then theft, possibly resisting arrest (an easily trumped up charge by abusive and unhappy law enforcement sorts) and minor parole violations.

The extremely poor person trying to eek out his survival relying on the largesse of today’s meanspirited and judgemental society often finds himself at the mercy of a series of impatient bureaucrats and enforcers who’d rather just make him become invisible. No more panhandling please, no loitering, no sitting around in front of a business being a nuisance. No reminding us of your plight and my society’s failure to appreciate your personal circumstances. Is it any wonder a lot of these unfortunate people are driven quite mad? And once they are deemed to be acting out, their behaviour can very quickly be considered a danger. This begins that miserable process of cajoling them into prisons.

Vancouver, just this year, thanks to a so-called Liberal member of the provincial legislature, Lorne Mayencourt drafting the Safe Streets Law, has witnessed the hilarious proposition of the city cops trying to fine the poor people for ‘aggressive’ panhandling. This is the first step to criminalizing the poor. And they are all baby steps after that to sweep them into prison where they will, thankfully for the elitists, be out of sight and mind.

Prison guards are witnessing every day in both the United States and Canada what uselessness it is in terms of rehabilitation to incarcerate the mentally ill, or those people who are just supremely pissed at the system which has marked them as criminals. We as taxpayers could save millions (if not billions) of dollars not sending these people into a lifelong merry-go-round in the judicial system if we were to address their personal needs in the first place. It is morally incumbent upon a reasonably well-to-do society to look after its poor and the way this would seem to be most efficiently tackled would be to provide them opportunities to work, after situating them in a home of some meagre comfort.

Social housing and jobs we hear about at every election time, but with unions covering their own pocketbooks so thoroughly that they don’t permit welfare recipients to take certain menial jobs if they’re not members then it’s an uphill battle all the way to the first paycheck. And providing housing to an employable person who isn’t given the chance to enjoy the dignity of work, is a bitter comfort as it reinforces their reliability on charity.