It's a really sad situation, but it's a reality. Yes, the prospect of jail is a minimal deterrent in some areas. It's a sad situation.

you steal some bread from the market because you're hungry, okay, that's understandable.

You hold up a pizza guy and shoot him because you're poor? Sorry, that's not excusable, no matter how bad your situation is.

These kinds of crimes are common and while I share the OPs desire for more jobs, these crimes have nothing to do with employment; their rate and frequency do not typically fall in improving economies or higher employment periods.

People who commit crimes of sustenance typically commit the least-minor crime that will provide means. You don't mug and shoot the pizza guy because you don't have a job...at least, that's not the greatest of your problems.

People who commit more egregious crimes of these sorts typically have other motivations or are among the genuinely stricken: severely-disturbed individuals, the mentally-ill, drug addicts desperate for a fix. Frequently, they're also part of initiation rites...there was a street gang back in Hartford when I was growing up, part of their initiation was you had to rob a store and shoot the clerk...that way, you were in for life. If you tried to leave the gang, they had evidence on you of your crimes.

rise.

one way or another, institutionalized poverty/lack of jobs/economic instability is the root cause.

why would you expect people to be kind & follow the rules when kindness has not been practiced toward them and the rules have left them outsiders?

if you haven't experienced being in the mainstream & then seen how things change once you're outside it, you may not understand.

"Valjean's Soliloquy."

Pieces of shit robbing hard working people who are barely making ends meet.

Just wanted to fix that sentence for you.