Not so easy.

In the US, the prison system is also used to deal with mental illness, unemployment and homelessness.

See NYC for how that works:

  1., Create a zero tolerance policy

  2., Invest in high police coverage

  3., Arrest people on small stuff, like public intoxication, urination, etc.

  4., Three strikes is a compounding factor, so three small things and boom, you're off the streets for years.

It did help clean up NYC, but rather going the social housing and mental health way, it simply put a lot of poor people in jail.

Now, is this for societies greater good? Is NYC overall a better, safer place for poor people? No easy answers there.