TROM: Homeless? Book A Prison Cell!

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Video based on the TROM ebook “Homeless? Book a Prison Cell!” - https://www.tromsite.com/2015/04/homeless-book-a-prison-cell/ you can find all of the sources for all of the claims in the book.

“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. 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.”

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We do not own all of the materials from this video, and the following video segments are used for commentary, educational, and sourcing purposes:

- The Norden - Nordic prisons (excerpt) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g56susrNQY
- Jay (homeless) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Crg7qKBdOvM
- Cited For Feeding the Homeless in Fort Lauderdale https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYvzUnhSnIo
- A Day in the Life of a Correctional Officer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk2lw6qjdAM
- Homeless Documentary - A Look at Manchester's Homeless People https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsD_C84Q4_I
- Bad Boys Island - BASTØY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfWgEP-tgdQ
- PBS Locked Up in America http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/investigation/locked-up-in-america/

Music (copyright free):
RAIN - Cinematic Music (Piano) - Joachim Heinrich

[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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