A JAIL CELL IS NOT A HOUSING POLICY.

JUSTICE · SOCIAL JUSTICE

Published by | Langhorne P. Breedlove

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2026 · 12:38 AM ET

Tags: Housing · Rehabilitation · Diversion · Public Safety · Reentry · Justice Reform

Dear fellow American proletariat: A locked door is not a treatment plan. A mattress behind bars is not a housing strategy. And an arrest record does not become a social-service referral merely because a county spends an extraordinary sum processing it. Yet the United States repeatedly asks police, judges and correctional institutions to solve problems that began long before anyone dialed 911.

American Proletariat proposes a presumption in favor of safe housing, voluntary support and evidence-based rehabilitation instead of unnecessary incarceration wherever lawful eligibility, individualized risk assessment, victims' rights and public safety permit it. That qualification is not decorative. People who present serious risks may require secure confinement; people who need medical care, shelter or support should not be incarcerated simply because the civilian systems meant to help them are absent.

THE MANDATE

Create federally supported pathways for housing-first stabilization, behavioral-health treatment, substance-use care, supervised community alternatives and coordinated reentry. Prioritize cases where housing insecurity, disability, untreated illness, poverty-related violations or low-risk conduct are driving repeated contact with the criminal justice system. Preserve judicial discretion, constitutional safeguards, access to counsel, proportional accountability and safety for victims and communities.

AP is not proposing that every defendant receive housing instead of prosecution, nor that a person facing a credible violent threat be automatically released. The intervention must depend on the offense, evidence, legal stage, assessed risks, available treatment and the person's needs. Rehabilitation should also reach people who are incarcerated and those returning from custody.

ROOTS & HISTORY

The modern Housing First approach arose from the recognition that many people facing chronic homelessness could obtain stable housing without first completing sobriety or treatment requirements. Its basic distinction is between securing housing as a foundation for services and making housing a prize awarded only after someone demonstrates readiness. The approach does not eliminate treatment, tenancy rules or concern for safety. (Source 03)

Justice-system diversion developed through several routes, including specialty courts, crisis intervention, pretrial services and behavioral-health partnerships. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration identifies opportunities at pre-arrest, booking, adjudication and reentry, connecting people to evidence-based care where clinically and legally appropriate. (Source 04)

The Supreme Court's June 28, 2024 decision in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson held that the Eighth Amendment's Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause does not prohibit enforcement of generally applicable public-camping laws simply because people experiencing homelessness lack available shelter. The decision did not declare all responses to homelessness wise or settle every possible constitutional challenge. (Source 05)

TODAY · THE PROBLEM

The Department of Housing and Urban Development's January 2025 Point-in-Time count identified 745,652 people experiencing homelessness, including 266,320 people in unsheltered locations. The snapshot counts people on one night; it does not count everyone who experiences housing insecurity over an entire year. (Source 01)

At midyear 2024, the Bureau of Justice Statistics counted 658,700 people in local jails. About 68% were unconvicted, meaning they had not been convicted of their current charge; that does not by itself establish they were eligible for release or that their detention was unlawful. Local jails recorded approximately 7.9 million admissions during July 2023–June 2024. (Source 02)

The financial temptation is to compare a prison's annual spending per prisoner with the rent on an apartment, then announce that housing everyone would save the difference. Unfortunately, accounting is not improved by theatrical subtraction. A 2025 USAFacts analysis of 2023 state spending found a median of approximately $60,989 per prisoner across states, with enormous variation in accounting and expenditure. That is a useful indicator of scale, not an estimate of cash that automatically becomes available when one person receives housing. (Source 06)

The relevant comparison is local and matched: comparable people, the same fiscal year, housing and clinical service costs versus the avoidable correctional costs of actual detention days, with any change in emergency medical use, court appearances or public-safety outcomes reported separately.

THE LEGAL PATH

Congress can authorize housing, behavioral-health and justice-reinvestment grants, amend federal criminal and reentry programs, and attach lawful conditions to federal spending. States and local governments largely control ordinary criminal offenses, jails, pretrial release rules, prosecution and housing implementation. Tribal Nations have sovereign justice and housing systems requiring meaningful partnership. A federal grant cannot abolish state due-process requirements or substitute an administrator's preference for a lawful judicial order.

Funding agencies could include HUD for housing support, HHS and SAMHSA for treatment systems, and the Department of Justice for pretrial, diversion and reentry initiatives, operating within statutes Congress approves. Rules must protect medical privacy, the presumption of innocence, procedural fairness, victims' rights and equal access.

THE PLAN · A CIVILIAN ALTERNATIVE THAT WORKS

01 · PREVENT THE CRISIS

Expand eviction prevention, short-term rental assistance, emergency shelter capacity and rapid housing navigation for people at immediate risk of homelessness. Connect this policy to Safe, Dignified Public Housing without duplicating the same construction or subsidy expense. Build referral routes through hospitals, schools, crisis teams and community organizations before someone enters the criminal system.

02 · DIVERT WHERE APPROPRIATE

Develop evidence-informed alternatives for qualifying people at arrest, booking and pretrial stages. Use individualized assessments and clear public-safety thresholds, independent counsel and voluntary treatment wherever legally possible. Disclose when participation affects a case, what happens after a failed placement and how defendants may challenge conditions.

03 · TREAT WITHOUT MAKING CARE A PUNISHMENT

Provide access to mental-health, substance-use, disability and medical services independent of incarceration status. Recognize that some people need intensive or secure clinical services; others need ordinary community treatment and a stable address. Do not turn a diagnosis into an automatic reason for detention or require treatment compliance as an arbitrary prerequisite for all housing.

04 · RETURN HOME WITH A PLAN

Begin reentry planning before release. Arrange identification, benefits enrollment, medical continuity, housing referrals, education and employment support, including Switchboard pathways. Assess the restrictions that can exclude returning residents from housing while preserving lawful protections for other tenants and communities.

05 · PROTECT THE PUBLIC AND MEASURE HARM

Track serious reoffending, victimization, missed court appearances, treatment engagement, housing retention, complaints and civil-rights violations. Use independent review and stop programs that worsen safety. The alternative to careless incarceration must never become careless abandonment.

THE TEN-YEAR LEDGER

The first-year forecast must identify target jurisdictions, eligible participants, assessment and legal costs, housing acquisition or lease subsidies, operating services, clinical support, staff, security where needed, data infrastructure and independent evaluation. Include baseline housing and correctional appropriations without claiming the same dollar as both new program spending and a savings offset.

For each of ten fiscal years, report gross program expenditure, existing funds redirected, incremental housing and health costs, service inflation, enrollment growth, measurable detention days avoided, marginal rather than average corrections savings, emergency-service effects, program administration, transition and uncertainty. Reducing detention by one day rarely saves the average per-prisoner annual cost divided by 365; substantial fixed costs remain until staffing, buildings or entire operating units can change.

Costs will vary by locality, housing market, acuity of need and case mix. There is no defensible single national per-person comparison or AP ten-year net estimate without these inputs. Publish a central estimate, a cautious adverse case and a more favorable scenario, keeping effects on public safety distinct from financial savings.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG?

Programs may struggle with housing shortages, unsafe placements, insufficient clinicians, weak supervision, unequal eligibility or services that are discontinued after a pilot. Diversion could widen the net of court supervision rather than truly replace detention. Victims and residents may reasonably demand safeguards when a participant has a history of violence or repeat offending.

Housing First has a substantial evidence base for improving housing stability, but homelessness trends also depend on rents, housing supply, migration, income and local execution; policymakers disagree about the right role of treatment requirements. HUD's 2025 report documented continued high homelessness even as national counts declined from 2024, and the agency's 2026 leadership argued for changes to Housing First policy. The proper response is to test outcomes, service capacity and implementation—not to confuse a national trend with proof that one intervention caused it. (Source 01)

A good design preserves genuine treatment options, consequences for serious harmful conduct, meaningful oversight and a clear route back to custody where a court lawfully determines detention is necessary. The intervention must be humane and credible enough to protect the people it serves and the people living around them.

MEASURING SUCCESS

Measure stable housing at 6, 12 and 24 months; avoidable detention days; program completion and voluntary treatment engagement; serious rearrest and reconviction; victim and resident safety; missed hearings; participant health; employment; emergency-room utilization; complaints; racial and disability disparities; and gross and marginal public costs. Report comparable nonparticipant groups and baseline risk wherever possible.

The measure of a decent justice system is not how many people it can fit behind a locked door. It is whether the law protects the public, treats people fairly and uses the least destructive effective response. Sometimes confinement is necessary. Sometimes a clinician and a stable place to sleep can do what a jail never could. We should be able to tell the difference.

SOURCES & FURTHER READING

01 · U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — 2025 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report, Point-in-Time Counts; released May 29, 2026. https://www.hud.gov/news/hud-no-26-037

02 · Bureau of Justice Statistics — Jail Inmates in 2024: Statistical Tables, September 2026. https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/jail-inmates-2024-statistical-tables/web-report

03 · U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — Fiscal Year 2024 Annual Performance Report, Housing First strategy and homelessness programs, January 2025. https://archives.hud.gov/reports/apr/HUD_FY_2024_Annual_Performance_Report_1.17.25.pdf

04 · Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration — Criminal and Juvenile Justice & Behavioral Health, updated May 24, 2024. https://www.samhsa.gov/communities/criminal-juvenile-justice/about

05 · U.S. Supreme Court — City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, 603 U.S. (2024), June 28, 2024. https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/23-175

06 · USAFacts — How Much Do States Spend on Housing Prisoners?, updated October 31, 2025; state corrections data for 2023. https://usafacts.org/articles/how-much-do-states-spend-on-prisons/

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WE ARE ONE.  ·  E PLURIBUS UNUM.