Why Unhoused People in the US Are Choosing to Go to Jail: ‘I kept Reoffending’

Why Unhoused People in the US Are Choosing to Go to Jail: 'I kept Reoffending'
 Chris Carver sits for a image at Compassionate Dependancy Treatment in Spokane, Washington.

Chris Carver waits in the courtroom for two hrs in advance of his name is referred to as. Spokane municipal judge Mary Logan tells him to stand: “We’re working with your case now.” He struggles to his toes. His beard is shabby. Department-like tattoos wind all around his eyes. He flashes a boyish grin through weary eyes.

Judge Logan faces him from the bench, an American flag draped behind her: “So, Mr Carver, you want to waive your correct to have an attorney represent you?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“So that is your appropriate, Mr Carver, to do that,” the decide claims. “I normally wonder why, when you … qualify to have counsel assigned at no cost to you–”

Carver interrupts: “Because it is a most penalty of a 12 months in jail, and that ain’t nothing at all to me, ma’am.”

“I’m sorry, what?” the decide asks.

Carver carries on: “I’m homeless, out there on the streets and every thing. A year is almost nothing to me … I do not know […]