Homeless and Incarceration

HOMELESS AND INCARCERATION

Homelessness is the problem that influences the life of the whole society. It is critical for the United States and as almost half a million of citizens do not have their own houses. They do not have the opportunities that the representatives of the general public have and cannot afford even some basic needs. Homeless individuals have to break the law and commit crimes, such as stealing food, even though they do not intend to do so, which leads to mass incarceration. This influences their behavior and increases the chances of becoming drug or alcohol addicts, which makes homeless individuals even more likely to become incarcerated. People who are imprisoned, often have no or underpaid job that does not provide these people with money enough to have a decent residence, which makes them a vulnerable population (Johnson 2015). It is important to consider what makes homeless people commit crimes that result in imprisonment. The information from various articles received during the literature review, I will reveal the connection between homelessness and incarceration, emphasizing the history that lead to their occurrence as well as the main causes of both problems. I will point out and explain the correlations between homelessness and crime rates, as well as its connections to the mental disorders, substance abuse, and chronic health condition in the context of how homeless lifestyle can be related to the incarceration. Also, I will indicate the way in which homelessness leads to mass incarceration. I will argue that the concept of homelessness and incarceration that cannot be broken without external help of the government, the general public and other organizations such as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Center for Mental Health Services, and the National Health Service Corporation. I emphasize that the discussed issue is vital for the community, as its solution will improve the quality of life in the country and make it much safer while my research is significant for the professionals who work in the sphere due to the authoritative information on the issue it provides.
It is critical for the general public and government to realize the connection between homelessness and incarceration because it is a milestone in the process of solving the problem. Eric Johnson, a professional correspondent for Reuters, focuses on the news and politics. I also referred to the article published in the New York Times” Drug Addicts among the Homeless.” It was written by a well-known science journalist, Gina Kolata. One more source is Markowitz’s article published in the peer-reviewed journal Criminology. He is an associate professor and an excellent specialist in the field of sociology. Also I used an article prepared by a former Los Angeles County prosecutor. Antonio Moore discussed incarceration of African-American men. I thoroughly investigated the work of two Doctors of Medicine. Gonzalez and Rosenheck are efficient in psychiatry and considered the issue of homelessness and incarceration in this perspective. Lerner-Wren is known as a professional in politics and public affairs; she was also appointed to deal with the decriminalization of people who have mental illnesses, which makes her report on this issue authoritative. Patterson’s work is also useful and reliable, as it is written by an experienced counselor who cooperates with the National Health Service Corporation. The report made by the National Coalition for the Homeless provided decent statistical information, as it is working for several years already with the intention to end homelessness.
Currently, the issue is considered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Center for Mental Health Services’ ACCESS program, and self-help groups (Johnson,2015). This program provides homeless people with shelters and subsidized homes. There are also various benevolent associations that gather clothes and give free food to the homeless. They encourage others to help these people, hoping that a wider range of opportunities will prevent them from committing crimes based on survival skills, such as stealing food, as mentioned earlier. This proposal will disclose the connection between homelessness and incarceration that likely to grant the ability to avoid mass incarceration through the reduction of homeless individuals.
The government and the general public should be well aware of the way homelessness leads to mass incarceration because this knowledge can help them to deal with this issue before it occurs and to split this vicious cycle. There are two main reasons that only cause homelessness lead to incarceration: mental illness and substance abuse. First of all, people are not able to control mental illness and nothing really depends on their will. For this reason, it is impossible to deal with this problem without any external help. Mentally ill individuals are led by their instincts and distorted vision. They do not understand that their actions are bad and illegal, or they fail to realize this in a particular moment. Because of the adverse mental or emotional condition, people can conduct violent and property offenses, for which they are punished by law. As a result, more than 15% of convicts in prisons and jails are people with mental illnesses. As their behavior is not likely to improve with the course of time, they are rarely released on bail and have increased the risk of suicide (Markowitz, 2006). Mentally illness individuals often leave their homes and move to other places. Being homeless, they do not feel safe anymore, which causes anxiety and aggression. These people are mainly arrested for "public order" types of offenses, assaults, and robberies (Markowitz 2006). Reduction of aggressive policing approaches and hospitalization with required treatment would be more beneficial in this perspective and would reduce both crime rates and rates of incarceration. Second, substance abuse is one more reason for homelessness and institutional confinement. The proportion of people who have no home due to drug and alcohol abuse is much higher than those who are mentally ill. Mainly these people have themselves to blame for their adverse position in the society. People often start using substances because they are not satisfied with their lives. They make their friends and relatives turn their backs upon individuals they used to care about. Becoming addicted, people stop working and spend all their money on the substances (Kolata,1989). They start living on the streets in the criminal districts because there are more chances to get a new dose there. The same purpose makes addicts conduct crimes and leads to imprisonment. They are often not aware of the things they do and become much more aggressive. In some cases, both reasons of becoming homeless and incarcerated can be found. Gonzalez and Rosenheck (2002) state that these people show poorer adjustment and have less clinical improvement than others. They are even more likely to commit crimes and be imprisoned. These people face much more difficulties than others if they want to start a new life and enter the society again. As a rule, they turn out to be unable to alter the situation significantly and are arrested over and over again.
Finally, chronic health conditions can also affect people’s lives and lead to homeless ness. This issue is today on the front burner in our country, as about 50% of the general public already have at least one chronic condition or disease (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016). It is important to pay attention to such things as multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease, as they make individuals extremely vulnerable. Physical and mental complications do not allow these persons to live normal lives. Having no opportunity to perform everyday duties, they often cannot afford having a decent home or get the key of the street, being lost. people with chronic conditions may spend all their savings on treatment so that they will not have enough money for living. The individuals lose their residents and have no other opportunity but to live on the streets and commit crimes to stay the course. In this way, the incarceration rates increase greatly, people with chronic health conditions receive decent treatment, they would not become homeless and incarcerated with the course of time. Individuals who have already spent some time in a prison or jail often face society’s reluctance to accept them regardless of the sentence and its fairness. People who were released often cannot find a job that can provide them with the money needed for a residence, clothes, and food. As a result, they have nothing to do but live on the street or in shelters. Understanding the correlations between homelessness and crime rates as well as its connections to the mental disorders and substance abuse can help to create a guideline for the government and the general public on how to reduce the number of both homeless people and those who are imprisoned. However, there are some advantages of the imprisonment of homeless individuals because it is an effective way to make the streets safer and prevent crimes. Some homeless people prefer to be imprisoned as it allows them to spend time in a warm building with some conveniences and food that are not available on the streets. Still, imprisonment seems to be the most radical intervention that should be omitted if possible.
History
Prisons were created to ensure the safety of the general public and prevent criminals from committing crimes. However, it turned out that the number of people who are imprisoned increases greatly with the course of time. Moore (2015) even noticed that there are more sentenced African-Americans than educated ones, which proves that something is wrong with the current system. He also claimed that countries have an opportunity to control crime rates (Moore, 2015). They develop policies that allow to influence prison populations and select individuals who should be mainly incarcerated.
Between 1965 and 1990, a period during which overall and violent crime rates tripled in Germany, Finland, and the United States, German politicians chose to hold the imprisonment rate flat, Finnish politicians chose to substantially reduce theirs, and American politicians generally enacted policies that sent more people to prison, along with lengthened prison terms (Moore,2015).
The main reason why such tendencies are seen is the reduced hospital capacity. Both kinds of homeless population, those who abuse substances and have mental illnesses, require treatment that should be provided in special facilities. It was found that “the percentage of patients with prior arrests increased from 15 percent in the 1946 to 1948 period to 32 percent in 1969 and to 40 percent by 1975” (Markowitz,2006). Ten years later this number increased by 17%. Such changes can be explained by the criminalization of people with mental illnesses. They were imprisoned even though the majority of the jails had no access to mental health services in the 1990s. As a result, these individuals received no appropriate care and continued to act in ways that would cause consequences, which lead to repeat incarceration. The first attempts to solve this issue were made in 2003 by the President’s New Freedom Commission. The delivery of mental health care improved, but the situation did not change significantly. In 2015, a collaborative project was created (Lerner-Wren, 2015). Considering its purpose, it will be likely to bring a change in mental health in the USA, which can improve the situation with homelessness and imprisonment.
It is also vital to pay attention to the problem of substance abuse and its connection to homelessness. Patterson (2016) states that this issue has been familiar to the US for hundreds of years, but it started to attract more attention recently as more kinds of drugs became illegal and their variety increased greatly. Technological development provided an opportunity to create forged IDs and licenses.
The New York State Inebriate Asylum was the first to consider substance abuse as an illness and develop ways in which it can be treated. It happened in 1864, and in 1996, the Office of Drug Control Policy found out that the number of addicts increased greatly among young populations. Drugs and alcohol were primarily used to improve people’s health condition, the 20th century turned out to be a milestone due to chemical and drug development (Patterson,2016). Today the number of addicts is reduced due to the laws and limitations, but it remains still rather high. These people leave their working places and families and spend all their money on alcohol or drugs, even though they cannot afford a place to live.
The research conducted by Wu and Green showed that the number of people who have at least one chronic disease or condition increases greatly with the course of time. Only among the non-institutionalized population, 44.7% had chronic conditions in 1995, which turned into 46.2% in 2005 and is expected to reach 49.2% in 2030 (Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, 2016).

Advocacy
Homelessness is one of the most general pathways to imprisonment among people with mental illnesses. The surveys show that the majority of mentally ill individuals who are imprisoned do not have their own residence. Many mentally ill homeless persons can be prevented from committing crimes, if they received decent care. Still, professionals notice a lack of community treatment programs and believe that there are not enough specialists who can help such people. Mentally ill homeless individuals create neighborhood disorder and generate fear. That is why many states implemented aggressive policy approaches that lead to mass incarceration. This population includes people from ages 15 to 34 years old. These individuals are rather strong physically, and they maintain an active way of life, which increases the possibility of crime commitment and arrest. Markowitz (2006) states that 30% of the mentally ill were found guilty of a violent offense and about 20% committed robbery. At the same time, the hospital capacity effect does not exceed 40%, which proves that it fails to play a vital role in dealing with homeless individuals and preventing mass incarceration.
The stereotype exists that homeless individuals are those who abuse substances. The report prepared by Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in 2003 proves that such view has its own ground. Almost 40% of homeless people were claimed to be dependent on alcohol. These were mainly the representatives of the older generations. Youth and young adults give preference to other substances, which can be proved by the fact that more than 25% abused drugs (National,2009). 68% of American cities claimed that this issue is their main reason for increased homelessness for single adults and 12% for families (National, 2009). Moreover, according to the report, two-thirds of the homeless admitted that they lost their residences because of such addiction. The issue turns out to be critical because addicted people are not able to control themselves. For example, Norman Moore gave up his job and “spent his $10,000 pension in a month, using the money for fast women and drugs” (Kolata,1989). Thus, it turns out to be clear that the problem of homelessness cannot be solved without external help, and mass incarceration will not be prevented.
The representatives of the general public believe that homeless individuals are having health problems. They are often imaged as people who are constantly coughing, have trembling hands and limp. The society also believes that many homeless persons have chronic health conditions and they are not able to treat them properly because of the poor access to the healthcare services and poor sanitation. According to the information provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about half of all adults suffered from such problem in 2012 while 25% even had two or more chronic health conditions. Such numbers are critical as they show that a half of the US population is at risk of becoming homelessness. The financial side of this issue is rather terrifying, 86% of all health care expenditures were spent on dealing only with chronic conditions in 2010, which means that the rest of the majority had to operate efficiently with extremely limited resources. As a result, it becomes clear that the lack of decent treatment of chronic conditions has negative influences on the quality of life and health of all people who live in the US as well as country’s economy.
The society ignores homeless people, being sure that they are not good enough for working and living in a normal environment. Because of such treatment, homeless persons try to isolate themselves. They become separated from the rest of the general public and disregard laws. The homeless commit crimes to survive, as they have no other means to do this. They are often not enough and fail to supply everyone with the basic needs. Moreover, homeless individuals face the psychological barrier. It prevents them from interaction with the society and attempts to receive some help. As a consequence, these people become hostile and conduct both violent and criminal behaviors that lead to incarceration. However, it should also be emphasized that the majority of people who were released from the institutions and try to change their lives become homeless and have nothing to do but to commit improper actions to survive.
This research is likely to make a great contribution to the intention and bring significant improvement to the current situation in the US because it allows to see how homelessness occurs and in what way it influences incarceration rates. The connection between these two issues cannot be denied. It emphasizes that the preventive measures that be used at each stage should be developed to enhance situation. It may be beneficial to utilize federal funding and implement new programs to support individuals who lost their homes.

Conclusion
Having an appropriate home is one of human, basic needs. It is discussed in different perspectives, including home as a native country, friendly society and a place where one feels calm and protected. However, the meaning of a decent residence seems the most vital one. Having no home, individuals tend to lose the sense of being human and yield to their instincts and survival skills. They become rather vulnerable and subconsciously separate themselves from the rest of the society. Being addicted to drugs or alcohol and suffering from mental illnesses, these people turn out to lose self-control. They commit crimes to get money for goods, food or substances, to protect themselves and their property, or just because they cannot realize that their actions are wrong. Taking into account the fact that such populations cannot change the situation themselves and require treatment, it is critical to make the government and the representatives of the general public aware of the issue so that they can initiate programs and reforms to end homelessness and prevent mass incarceration. People who keep a homeless lifestyle are at high risks of becoming incarcerated. Their chances are greater than other representatives of the society. This happens because the homeless have limited educational and working opportunities, they yield to substance abuse and cannot resist chronic health conditions and mental disorders. The individual suffer from poor access to healthcare services and negative environments they live in. It is critical to remember that homelessness and incarceration exist within a vicious circle that cannot be broken without external help. Both the government and the general public should do their best to make sure that the number of homeless people reduces because in this way they can not only prevent mass incarceration but also have safe country with high quality of life.

References
Centers of disease control and prevention. (2016). Chronic disease overview. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/overview/
Gonzalez, G., & Rosenheck, R. (2002). Outcomes and service use among homeless persons with serious mental illness and substance abuse. Psychiatric Services, 53(4), 437-446. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11919357
Johnson, E. (2015). More than 500,00 people homeless in the United States: Report. Retrieved from: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-homelessness-idUSKCN0T908720151120
Kolata, G. (1989). Drugs addicts among the homeless: Case studies of some lost dreams. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/30/us/drug-addicts-among-the-homeless-case-studies-of-some-lost-dreams.html?pagewanted=all
Lerner-Wren, G. (2015). The criminalization of mental illness: Be a voice for justice. Retrieved from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ginger-lernerwren/the-criminalization-of-me_b_7915560.html
Markowitz, F. (2006). Psychiatric hospital capacity, homelessness, and crime and arrest rates. Criminology, 44(1), 45-72. DOI: 10.1111/j.1745-9125.2006.00042.x
Moore, A. (2015). The black male incarceration problem is real and it’s catastrophic.
Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/antonio-moore/black-mass-incarceration- statistics_b_6682564.html
National Coalition for the Homeless. (2009). Substance abuse and homelessness.
Retrieved from: http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/addiction
Partnership to fight chronic disease. A vision for a healthier future. Retrieved from
Patterson, E. (2016). History of drug abuse. Retrieved from: http://drugabuse.com/library/history- St. Michael’s Hospital. (20110). 85 percent of homeless people have chronic health conditions.
Retrieved from http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-08/smh-s8p082411.php