[lebean]

Well a lot of the sub-$500 petty theft are done by junkies trying to get their fix for the day, and with opiate addiction getting worse, not better, in the US, there are many of these types and the day-by-day thefts add up over the years. Throwing a repeat offender in jail for a couple weeks is often the only time a junkie will kick, so it kind of does solves the root problem for these individuals. Even some hard-ass jurisdictions have half way houses.

Source: me, an ex junkie, and had junkie friends. Go ahead and write this off as an anecdote, but it's an anecdote repeated thousands upon thousands of times.