Western Regional Advocacy Project Fact Sheet: Findings from UN Special Rapporteur on Poverty and Hum
Findings from UN Special Rapporteur on Poverty and Human Rights’ Statement – December 15, 2017
According to Department of Housing and Urban Development in December 2017, nationwide homelessness estimates on the figure of 533,742 – including 76,500 in New York, 55,200 in Los Angeles and 6,900 in San Francisco. On the other hand, these figures can be undercount, as illustrated by estimates of 21,000 in San Francisco provided by various experts.
Homelessness on this scale is far from inevitable and again reflects political choices to see law enforcement rather than low cost housing, medical treatment, psychological counseling, and job training as solutions.
The use of the legal system, not to promote justice, but to raise revenue. In many cities and counties, the criminal justice is effectively a system for keeping the poor in poverty while generating revenue to fund not only the justice system but diverse other programs. They sometimes also pressure legislatures to maintain high staffing and overtime levels, at the expense of less expensive approaches which would address the social challenges constructively and effectively and eliminate the need for a law enforcement response.
Some 11 million people are admitted to jail annually, and more than 730,000 people are being held. Of whom almost two-thirds are awaiting trial, and thus presumed to be innocent. Yet judges have increasingly set a large amount of bail, which mean that wealthy defendants can secure their freedom, whole poor defendants are likely to stay in jail, with all of the consequences in terms of loss of their jobs, disruption of their childcare, inability to pay rent, and a dive into deeper destitution.
Ever more demanding and intrusive regulations lead to infraction notices, which rapidly turn into misdemeanors, leading to the issuance of warrants, incarceration, the incurring of unpayable fines and stigma of a criminal conviction that in turn virtually prevents subsequent employment and access to most housing. Yet authorities in Los Angeles and San Francisco often encourage the vicious cycle.
Mention must be made of the widespread practice of suspending drivers’ licenses for a wide range of non-driving related offences, such as failure to pay fines. This is a perfect way to ensure that the poor, living in communities which have steadfastly refused to invest in serious public transport systems, are unable to earn a living which might have helped to pay the outstanding debt.
US has the highest incarceration rate in the world, ahead of Turkmenistan, El Salvador, Cuba, Thailand and the Russian Federation. Its rate is nearly 5 times the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average.
In the OECD, US ranks 35th out of 37 in terms of poverty and inequality
