Teach homeless bushcraft

mental health care,  where do you draw the line on that? 
is he crazy or lazy? is a learning disability considered  "mental"  
 me thinks, in order to receive any help, [snap,welfare, shelter]
 not only should a background ck for felony convictions and drug screen be done, but an IQ test also}
a evaluation needs to be done to weed out crazy from lazy
As you can see,  i have no pity for felons, druggies, or lazy ass folks.

i am a little hesitant to pick on convicted felons,  simply because there are a lot of goober heads that took a plea
when innocent,  because of the simple fact they wanted out of jail,  taking a plea was an easy out. due to no bail money and no money for a lawyer.  

case in point,  the lady in Georgia?  who was arrested for dope residue on a spoon in her car
thrown in jail,  the "wheels of justice"  were set in motion, she spent 6 mths in jail
was about to accept a guilty plea bargain.  when the lab came back with the test results on the residue
 spaghettiOs  

If they are crazy why aren't they in a mental institution ?

link
Meth charge dropped after only spaghetti sauce found on spoon

Commerce woman released after lab analysis backs her SpaghettiOs claim

By Nick Watson

nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com

POSTED: September 19, 2014 9:25 p.m.

Drug charges have been dropped against a Commerce woman after crime lab analysis confirmed her claim that a spoon she had in a vehicle leading to her arrest did not contain methamphetamine residue but spaghetti sauce.



Ashley Gabrielle Huff, 23, initially was charged with possession of methamphetamine. She maintained the residue on a spoon was spaghetti sauce, not meth.



After the analysis agreed, the charge was dismissed. She was released from the Hall County Jail on Thursday night.



“I think she said it had been SpaghettiOs,” Hall County assistant public defender Chris van Rossem said.



Huff was arrested July 2 by the Gainesville Police Department, suspected of having meth residue on a spoon, van Rossem said.



“From what I understand, she was a passenger in a car and had a spoon on her, near her, and I guess the officer, for whatever reason, thought there was some residue,” he said.



According to the Hall County Comprehensive Justice Information System, Huff had not been charged with any type of felony or drug-related offense prior to the incident.



“She’s maintained all along that there’s no way in hell that’s any sort of drug residue or anything like that,” van Rossem said.



Attempts to obtain the original arrest report from the Gainesville Police were unsuccessful, and van Rossem was unfamiliar with other details related to the arrest. Gainesville Police spokesman Cpl. Kevin Holbrook said the department would defer to the district attorney’s office.



Van Rossem, who was assigned Aug. 11 to Huff, began the process of a plea deal. The district attorney’s office filed a dismissal Thursday following the crime lab’s analysis.



“The Crime Lab report showed no controlled substances on the spoon submitted for testing,” according to a dismissal signed by Northeastern Judicial Circuit District Attorney Lee Darragh.



Huff originally attempted going through the Hall County Drug Court but wasn’t able to make all the appointments, van Rossem said. Huff was then reincarcerated Aug. 2 and was unable to make the bond payment, he said.



“I think what the unfortunate part about her case is that she was probably willing to take the felony to close out her case so that she get out of jail, even though she always maintained innocence,” van Rossem said.



Attempts to reach Huff through her public defender were unsuccessful.



  Meth charge dropped after only spaghetti sauce found on spoon Commerce woman released after lab analysis backs her SpaghettiOs claim By Nick Watson nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com POSTED: September 19, 2014 9:25 p.m. Drug charges have been dropped against a Commerce woman after crime lab analysis confirmed her claim that a spoon she had in a vehicle leading to her arrest did not contain methamphetamine residue but spaghetti sauce. Ashley Gabrielle Huff, 23, initially was charged with possession of methamphetamine. She maintained the residue on a spoon was spaghetti sauce, not meth. After the analysis agreed, the charge was dismissed. She was released from the Hall County Jail on Thursday night. “I think she said it had been SpaghettiOs,” Hall County assistant public defender Chris van Rossem said. Huff was arrested July 2 by the Gainesville Police Department, suspected of having meth residue on a spoon, van Rossem said. “From what I understand, she was a passenger in a car and had a spoon on her, near her, and I guess the officer, for whatever reason, thought there was some residue,” he said. According to the Hall County Comprehensive Justice Information System, Huff had not been charged with any type of felony or drug-related offense prior to the incident. “She’s maintained all along that there’s no way in hell that’s any sort of drug residue or anything like that,” van Rossem said. Attempts to obtain the original arrest report from the Gainesville Police were unsuccessful, and van Rossem was unfamiliar with other details related to the arrest. Gainesville Police spokesman Cpl. Kevin Holbrook said the department would defer to the district attorney’s office. Van Rossem, who was assigned Aug. 11 to Huff, began the process of a plea deal. The district attorney’s office filed a dismissal Thursday following the crime lab’s analysis. “The Crime Lab report showed no controlled substances on the spoon submitted for testing,” according to a dismissal signed by Northeastern Judicial Circuit District Attorney Lee Darragh. Huff originally attempted going through the Hall County Drug Court but wasn’t able to make all the appointments, van Rossem said. Huff was then reincarcerated Aug. 2 and was unable to make the bond payment, he said. “I think what the unfortunate part about her case is that she was probably willing to take the felony to close out her case so that she get out of jail, even though she always maintained innocence,” van Rossem said. Attempts to reach Huff through her public defender were unsuccessful.

The city of Jackson has taken a lot of abandoned property over the years without compensation, so , actually they can take someone's property without paying for it. There is also a lot ot property seized for failure to pay taxes. An enterprising person can find the necessary materials to make the house livable. The point you are not getting is, we are already giving them money. We give them money in the form of subsidized housing, free health care and free groceries. We subsidize their utilities and their are private donations of food and clothing. The only difference is,, they would actually own something. The lack of pride in ownership is, at least, partially responsible for their current state. I agree with ihatedhollis, it is worth a trial program. There are countless school kids looking for something to do in the summer, maybe the city could pay them a minimal amount to help rehab some of there properties.

Here's What Happened When One City Gave Homeless People Shelter Instead of Throwing Them in Jail
While many cities continue to criminalize the homeless population, one city tried giving them homes.

October 8, 2014 |





Kilee Lowe was sitting in a park when cops picked her up and booked her into jail overnight.

After she got out the next morning, she returned to the park. The same officer who had thrown her into a cell not 24 hours before booked her again. It was back to jail for Kilee.

Kilee has been cycling in and out of the criminal justice system for years. After three and a half years in federal prison, she’s been homeless for a little over a year now.

“Just because I don’t have a credit card in my pocket,” she says, “does not make me a criminal.”

Kilee lives in one of hundreds of American cities that have criminalized homelessness. Sometimes the “crime” is loitering. Sometimes it’s panhandling. In 2014 alone, one hundred American cities have banned sitting or lying down in public places. Wherever it happens, the fallout is frustratingly similar.

Not having a roof over your head means living in a continual crisis. The stress of not knowing where you’ll sleep at night, whether your family will be safe, and if you’ll be able to eat can suck up all your energy and your will. Regular stints in jail can only make it more difficult to find stability.

Not only that, but they drain tax dollars that could be put to much better use.

Salt Lake City crunched the numbers. And the prescription was clear. The city was spending $20,000 per homeless resident per year – funding for policing, arrests, jail time, shelter, and emergency services. Homelessness was not going down. Instead, for $7,800 a year through a new program called Housing First, the city could provide a person with an apartment and case management services.

In 2005, the city was spending $40 million to address chronic homelessness. Several years after starting the Housing First program, in 2013, spending was down to $9.6 million.

And more importantly, chronic homelessness has dropped 72 percent.

In a new video (above), Brave New Films and The Nation spoke to people whose lives have been greatly improved by the Housing First program. One man says that homeless people are often homeless because they are running from problems. Sometimes it’s abuse. Sometimes it’s addiction. He had been molested as a child and struggled with drug addiction as an adult. Recovery was hard and other programs would throw him back on the street if he relapsed, continuing the destructive cycle. After moving into stable housing, the unending stress of being homeless has dissolved. He’s been able to focus on sobriety and recovering. It’s worked.

For the last forty years, this country has continually ratcheted up the number of people behind bars and expanded the reasons we put them there. Social problems – like homelessness, drug addiction, and mental illness – have been sucked into a criminal justice system ill equipped to handle them. The problems haven’t been solved. Instead, we’ve locked too many people away and wasted money that could have been spent on interventions that could actually change the course of people’s lives. And as has always been the case with excessive correctional control, communities of color have been hardest hit.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. America can safely reduce our reliance on incarceration—several states have reduced their prison populations while crime rates have dropped.

Salt Lake City’s Housing First program is an important step in the right direction, a much more humane and fiscally responsible approach than criminalization. Other cities should follow suit. It’s time to end mass criminalization.

www.alternet.org/civil-libert...-throwing-them

Did you choose to be homeless?  Did you not read where the city SAVED money.  I did NOT cost them more.  Your statement that they are homeless because they want to be is a very classless thing to say.  Sure some are, but some are victims of circumstances.  A mother and her children do not take to the streets because they want to.  I am not sure what giving away pot has to do with this discussion.  I have nothing further to say on the subject other than we have tried it your way for years with no good result, maybe it's time to try something else.