You blamed the people and didn’t once mention the very real racists in power who for centuries have shaped policy to hurt minority communities. Prison reforms no one because they give it to private corporations who need recidivism for their business to flourish. As someone already said they cut mental health and homeless support funding in this country drastically. They also cut a host of other social programs that offer alternatives to turning to crime. There’s always been career criminals in every society, but the vast majority of criminals are people at the end of their ropes looking for a way out. If the government and society cut the programs giving hope and an alternative to crime, the criminals looking for soldiers will always fill in the gap. Despite all that there’s still a lot of statistical proof that crime has been dropping over the last 4 years. Most likely due to a lot of measures that were pumped money into poor communities during the pandemic. We spend a ridiculous amount of money on our prison industrial complex that only presses pause on problems. A sense of community and a real responsibility to the people of that community is going to stop way more criminals than a cage.