County in FL Spends Over $5 Million Jailing Homeless People

[GoLeft TV]

From Ring of Fire:

In Osceola County, Florida, municipalities have spent more than $5 million during the past decade to repeatedly jail homeless people. Rather than being jailed for major crimes, nearly all of the arrests of homeless people involved violations of local ordinances criminalizing homelessness such as panhandling and sleeping in public, ThinkProgress reports.

Impact Homelessness, a Florida advocacy group, collected the data for Osceola County. The group notes that homelessness is on the rise in central Florida partly because the community has not created a comprehensive, long-term plan to address homelessness and poverty issues. Their findings show that 37 homeless people in Osceola County were collectively arrested 1,250 times between 2004 and 2013, at a cost of $104 for each booking and an average cost of $80 per day for incarceration.

You can read the full article here at Ring of Fire.

[factsarenotfair]

1. That's what Jesus would want, of course.

[Doctor_J]

2. Incarcerating for Jesus!

That state is so corrupt I would look and see if Skeltor is making money off of this. He filled his pockets drug testing welfare recipients, and I would bet he's got a stake in this scam too.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Woody Guthrie was arrested for vagrancy and ended up in an institution for

the mentally ill (Greystone in Morris Plains, NJ).

Things can spin out of control.

[SamKnause]

4. What a sick fucking country !

It is truly embarrassing.

The 5 million could have been used to find homes, or apartments for the homeless.

The country is so stupid it hurts.

[global1]

5. I'm Sorry But Doesn't This Jailing Backfire On The County?.....

If I'm a homeless person living on the street and sleeping in public and then I get arrested and put in jail - suddenly I'm not homeless anymore. I have a roof over my head and I get some meals as well. I protected from the elements. In a sense I have a home - albeit - it is a jail.

I'm surprised that more homeless people don't converge on Osceola County it that's how the homeless are treated. (a little sarcasm mixed with some reality)

[packman]

6. Both my wife and I

were discussing the pro's and con's of getting arrested in our declining years. Free housing, companionship, medical care, all the leisure time in the world, meals, a crime free (well, relatively crime free) environment, 24 hr. a day security, someone to watch over you, not worrying about tomorrow because you'll know (knock on wood for dementia) where and what you'll be doing. Sounds like a good deal.

[Herself]

7. instead of helping them, they treat them to the peonage laws favored by the confederate

south.

SC is doing the same thing, at least trying in Columbia SC. As well as taking their Veterans checks, or soc sec checks if they get them..

America allows this. It's shame to all our country.