We have to get beyond Calvinism. John Calvin was the first “wealth gospel” preacher, promoting the view that piety brought riches; therefore wealth was a sign of god’s approval. Today, people with successful lives would like to believe that this is more the result of personal merit rather than fate.
The science is in: poverty causes immorality, and not the reverse. There have been plenty of natural, real world experiments, with economic upturns and downturns preceding the changes in crime, teenage pregnancy, drug use, and so on.
We are also stuck on supply side solutions, which are more expensive and less effective than demand side solutions. When public money goes to private companies the expense is a feature, not a bug. Drug treatment is 10 times more cost effective than law enforcement. Creating publicly funded jobs would be cheaper than storing people in (private) prisons.
People with privileged origins go on and on about personal responsibility. That personal responsibility doesn’t work so well when a (metaphorical) piano drops on your head at birth.