It costs $80B to house prisoners, and it would cost about the same to house the

It costs $80B to house prisoners, and it would cost about the same to house the mentally ill. That would be about 2% of the annual federal budget. We don’t track the cost of migration, real estate, rents, policing, civic wear and tear, caused by the criminal and mentally ill people. So we pay either way. Wishful thinking is just ‘hiding’ the costs. Conversely, what do we pay for ‘housing’ the poor and elderly via Medicare-Medicaid and Social Security? It’s more than 1/3 of all taxation.