Homelessness, Poverty, and Incarceration: The Criminalization of Despair

Abstract

The conditions of jails and prisons in the United States are more often than not deplorable and hidden from public view. The inhumane treatment of prisoners and their appalling living conditions is untenable and requires justice. A 2009 report by the National Institute of Corrections found that the United States ranks first in the industrialized world in the incarceration of its citizens. The social conditions within U.S. society that contribute to criminogenic pathologies—including homelessness, poverty, social location, drug and alcohol addiction, undiagnosed mental illnesses, dysfunctional familial patterns, underperforming pedagogical institutions, and a criminal justice system struggling with the juxtaposition of rehabilitative and punitive justice—serve notice to reframe the current conversation pertinent to corrections today.

Keywords:

• corrections ethics
• homelessness
• recidivism
• alternative sentencing
• social contract theory
• John Rawls
• John Locke
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau