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Now, welcome to the award-winning BestOfAleft podcast with Coach Today from Brave New Films, the Tom Harmon program

redacted tonight with Lee Camp, the David Pakman show last week tonight with John Oliver and Talk Poverty Radio.

Just another in a recent spike in homeless arrests.

20% arrested this month have been homeless.

You get arrested just because you're homeless.

The typical long-term chronic climate's person has been put in jail a lot.

It's got a small petty crimes, open containers, dress passing, water-during, all those kinds of things.

Columbia, South Carolina, another city criminalizing homelessness.

Where are the homeless people supposed to go?

The homeless end up in the criminal justice system since there hasn't been a better alternative.

I served three and a half years of the Utah State Prison, which I've been homeless a little over a year now.

This morning, I had got out of jail sat down like this.

The officer had pulled up on his motorcycle and told me I was going to jail.

This was the same officer who had just taken me to jail not even 24 hours ago.

Our homeless need long-term treatment solutions instead of just incarceration and then put them back in the street.

Just because I don't have a car, I don't have a credit card in my pocket or changing my pocket or a home to go to,

it does not make me a criminal.

We did a survey here of about $20,000 per person per year on the street because of the emergency services cost.

Jail time, EMP runs, emergency run visits.

And so we realized we were incurring those costs anyway.

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