LAW

Why Criminalizing Homelessness is a Cruel, Unusual, Racist Policy

“Sleep is a biological necessity, not a crime” — Justice Sotomayor

Man in black polo shirt sitting on brown wooden bench | Photo by Timur Weber via Pexels

Efforts to criminalize homelessness are cruel and unusual, but they’re also inherently racist in American society. In the months after the Civil War, for instance, The Vagrancy Act of 1866 treated Black freedom…