[Narrator] if you kill 14 students
you'll get a spacious single room and a private bathroom
while sharing a kitchen with a dozen of your neighbors.
Whether you'll spend your time in the library, on the rock wall,
or in the prison's recording studio launching your rap career,
is yet to be seen.
[TROM]
But if you lose your job and have no other means to pay the rent
you get to stay on the streets
and hope you will find something to eat.
Whether you're boiling hot or freezing cold, in light rain or hail storm
you will have no shelter to protect you from the reality of nature.
[Journalist] Jay, we're here in Cleveland,Ohio...
You're homeless.
[Jay] Yes sir.
[Journalist] Tell me about it.
[Jay] It's extremely difficult these days.
Like many other people I lost my job,
my home was foreclosed, I ended up being homeless...
About 2 years now.
There are groups, support groups, that will help you with certain things
but it's like you get to run around everywhere you go.
"See this guy, see this guy, see that guy"
I would like to see if possible all these
services and things that are available could be
condensed into one central group, one bureau
or whatever you might call it,
where you can go to get whatever need you...
you have to a certain place [and]
not be running over here for this, over there for that,
back here for this, come back Tuesday, come back Friday...
You spend your time spinning your wheels not getting what you need.
[Journalist] How do you survive?
I survive with a little bit of help from food stamps
and a few friends that I have helping me here and there
shelters, churches are nice enough.
Like this one centrally here.
Provides you at least a good meal on the weekend...
and just faith.
Just keep trying...
[Narrator] You may not even be able to get food
from other people in some places
since feeding homeless people has incredibly being declared illegal
in many cities in the United States.
This is the cruel reality we currently live in.
An estimated 100 million people are homeless worldwide.
That is about the same size and population as Mexico or Japan
or almost double the entire population of the United Kingdom, Italy or France.
They are roughly 10 times more homeless people
than they are total Greeks in the world.
If we were to build the country just for homeless people
it would become the 13th largest country in the world.
In striking contrast they are currently about 10 million people in jails
a much smaller number.
In other words homelessness is a ten times larger world problem than crime.
So consider this.
10 million people are provided a room to stay in,
food and clothes, many have access to healthcare and education
and sometimes even the Internet, television, recreational areas and much more.
These 10 million people are provided with all of that
just because they committed a crime.
Many of these prisoners are people who have killed other people,
stolen from other people, damage property
or in other cases have impoverished millions of others.
On the other hand 100 million homeless people
struggle to survive from one day to the next
just because they couldn't fit into a corrupt and unequal system.
[Homeless Person] You see big house.
Maybe somebody come in, maybe kill me.
I come in 12 o' clock, 1 o,clock.
because I know after maybe nobody come in.
6 o'clock I'm up and go.
Water I put,
on the back...
and wash.
You see this?
I sleep [in] this way.
I sleep this way.
And after the door close, like this
and this one I put,
one second I'll show you.
I put like this.
And another door is, look,
what I do to the other door.
After this one, maybe somebody like kill me.
And I sleep like this.
I have one bag as well.
I put like this,
and sleep
like this.
In England, seven years I sleep on the street.
Somebody tell me I'll help you, a lot of help you
after somebody say me, too much help me,
I'm seven years on the streets.
Nobody help me, never.
I don't believe this word.
[Narrator] Many homeless people intentionally commit small crimes to go to jail
because it is much better there than on the streets.
For many in this world being in prison is an advantage.
Normal prisons sometimes provide better comfort
than many schools hospitals or houses
and it is far better to stay in such conditions
that on the street starving and freezing.
If I were homeless I may commit crimes only to stay in jail.
There also exists luxurious prisons
that offer tennis,fishing, horseback riding, opportunities for learning,
comfortable rooms, job skill training, air-conditioning, refrigerators,
karaoke machines, private bathrooms with showers, laundry machines,
small conference rooms, gyms, state-of-the-art kitchens,
TVs, the Internet, libraries, recording studios, hours of recreation,
singing and dancing, jogging trails and much more.
[Inmate] When I got here, it felt like I was in a dream.
At first, I was placed in a different house
from whre I didn't have a great view,
but when I got down here to the Blues House
then I could see the houses on the other side at night,
how the lamps are lighting.
So this is a wonderful experience.
They envy me when they come over my house and see this view.
They usually say "Wow, you have a fantastic view..."
Well, yes I have.
[Narrator] Some inmates can stay in free standing two-story homes
and spend time with their families or live alone.
And in some prisons, children can live with their incarcerated parents
as long as the inmates are present at morning and evening roll call.
[Inmate] When I got here, the whole thing was totally strange,
because this is much freer.
This place almost felt like home but I'm from a small village.
I sleep much better here.
You don't have to wake up to the opening doors,
the clanking of the keychain...
Here I can open the door for myself if I want to.
Because this whole place is much more closer to real life than the closed prison.
[Narrator] In 2011 The Geneva Prison
had more than 40 million dollars pumped into a new wing and refurbishments.
The spacious triple occupancy cells each include a bathroom
and could pass for typical UCLA dorm room.
It is true that there is a fee to pay
for being incarcerated in one of these luxury prisons,
but a few bucks a day to live in such luxurious places
after you raped and killed 3-4 kids is not much.
And you can pay the fee by working online from inside the prison.
I'm not suggesting that criminals should be treated in an inhumane manner,
not at all.
But I want to emphasize how unfair and unsound
our way of running society has become.
Instead of us caring for those suffering from need
we create comfort for those suffering from greed.
[Homeless person] Poland as well, I no have family.
Poland as well, I sleep on the street.
Poland five years, England seven years,
twelve years.
I have brother.
He's in London and him...
doing crack.
I no like him.
This is my home.
Just me, only me,
sleep this way.
I'm scared maybe somebody come in...
because...
downstairs somebody..
drugs.
I no like this.
For me life is very very heavy.
[Narrator] Billions of dollars are spent
each year for this system of incarceration.
Instead imagine investing that
towards keeping people from committing crimes,
by simply providing them with what they need.
For example in the United States in 2007
around 74 billion was spent on corrections.
The total number of inmates in 2007 in Federal State and local lockups
was around 2.5 million people.
That comes to around $30,600 per inmate.
Housing the approximately 500,000 people
in jail in the USA awaiting trial who cannot afford bail
cost 9 billion dollars a year.
Most jail inmates are petty nonviolent offenders.
48% of crimes are violent.
Murder, manslaughter, rape, sexual assault, robbery and others.
Drug use accounts for around 22%.
Poverty meaning burglary, motor vehicle theft, fraud and other property crimes
accounts for 16.7%.
And public order meaning weapons, drunk driving, court offenses,
commercialized vice, morals and decency offenses,
liquor law violations and other public order offences
account for around 13%.
Now imagine how giving 30,600 dollars a year to every US citizen
would reduce both crime as well as homelessness and poverty.
So to poor people from Africa, Romania, US
and to those across the entire world
who do not have appropriate shelter, food, clothing
and/or live in very poor conditions
now there is a solution for you.
If you commit a crime in this world
your life will be greatly improved through incarceration.
If that does not sound wrong then I do not know what does.
[Journalist] If you had three wishes what would they be?
[Jay] If I had three wishes, I believe
first I'll wish that everyone would treat everyone as equals.
The man that has a $100,000 job is no better person
than the guy that is picking up garbage on the corner for somebody.
We're all the same, we're all human beings.
Why can't we just help each other?
That would be my first wish.
And I think if everyone did that,
I might not even need two more wishes.
If everybody helped everybody and got along
We would all be alright.
[Journalist] Thank you very much for talking about it. [Jay] Yes sir.
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