Let's follow the money. The "thinktank" pushing criminalizing homelessness (from the article) is the Cicero Institute [1]. Here is their July 2022 update gloat

Let's follow the money. The "thinktank" pushing criminalizing homelessness (from the article) is the Cicero Institute [1]. Here is their July 2022 update gloating about their anti-homelessness lobbying [2]. The Cicero Institute is the pet project for the predictably awful politics of billionaire Joe Lonsdale (eg [3][4][5]), co-founder of Palantir and General Partner and presumptive owner of 8VC who funds many companies [6]. My point is it's not quite accurate to say private prisons are lobbying for this. Their owners are. For those unfamiliar, lobbying firms often write the legislation they push [7][8][9]. At the Federal level, lobbyists are often former Senators and Congressmen. Why? Part of this racket is that by tradition they retain "floor privileges" to their former body (as well as their relationships with sitting members). Yes, a lobbyist former Senator is allowed on the Senate floor. It's worth noting that only about 6.5% of the US prison population [10] are in private prisons. Private prisons are still awful but they're symptomatic of a larger problem. Politicians love prisons for their districts not only because of jobs but because prisoners count for population for apportionment and redistricting but cannot vote. As an example, Alabama used $400m in Covid relief funds to build prisons [11]. The US loves to incarcerate people for long periods for minor offenses. A big part of this is creating a pool of forced labor (eg [12][13]). This is slavery economics. This is capitalism. [1]: https://ciceroinstitute.org/ https://ciceroinstitute.org/ [2]: https://ciceroinstitute.org/july2022update/ https://ciceroinstitute.org/july2022update/ [3]: https://techcrunch.com/2022/01/03/vc-joe-lonsdales-tweets-about-woke-tech-diversity-spark-investor-pushback https://techcrunch.com/2022/01/03/vc-joe-lonsdales-tweets-ab... [4]: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/oct/28/us-tech-investor-joe-lonsdale-refuses-to-apologise-for-loser-paternity-tweet https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/oct/28/us-tech-invest... [5]: https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/results?name=joe+lonsdale&order=desc&sort=D https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/results?name=joe+lo... [6]: https://www.8vc.com/companies https://www.8vc.com/companies [7]: https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2013/11/11/243973620/when-lobbyists-literally-write-the-bill https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2013/11/11/24397... [8]: https://www.usatoday.com/pages/interactives/asbestos-sharia-law-model-bills-lobbyists-special-interests-influence-state-laws/ https://www.usatoday.com/pages/interactives/asbestos-sharia-... [9]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ylomy1Aw9Hk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ylomy1Aw9Hk [10]: https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/capitalizing-on-mass-incarceration-u-s-growth-in-private-prisons/ https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/capitalizing-... [11]: https://www.splcenter.org/news/2022/07/01/alabama-diverts-400-million-covid-funds-to-prisons https://www.splcenter.org/news/2022/07/01/alabama-diverts-40... [12]: https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-03-29/Slavery-is-alive-and-kicking-in-U-S-cotton-prison-farms--Z0vs8rr87m/index.html https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-03-29/Slavery-is-alive-and-k... [13]:https://innocenceproject.org/13th-amendment-slavery-prison-labor-angola-louisiana/ https://innocenceproject.org/13th-amendment-slavery-prison-l...