AOC: “If We Want To Reduce the Number of People in Our Jails, Stop Building Them. …Build Hospitals.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sounded off on the U.S.’s approach to crime at a press conference in New York City Thursday.

She argued that the best way to address escalating crime rates was through better mental health care, not through more incarceration.

“It is not acceptable for us to use jails as garbage bins for human beings,” said the Congresswoman (D-NY) to a round of applause.

“It [jail] is not a place where we want to throw people whom we don’t want to invest in the actual holistic issues of their lives. If we want to reduce violent crime, if we want to reduce the number of people in our jails, the answer is to stop building more of them.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sounded off on the U.S.’s approach to criminal behavior at a press conference in New York City Thursday.

.@AOC: The Way To Reduce Crime Is To Stop Building Jailshttps://t.co/jm3nJ2mF3N

— Mr Producer (@RichSementa) June 3, 2021

She argued that the best way to address higher crime rates was through better mental health care, not by building more jails.

“The answer,” she continued, “is to build hospitals, we pay organizers, we get people mental health care, overall health care, employment, etc. It’s to support communities not throw them away.”