One part that’s almost always missing from the equation is actually spending the money to make prisons into places where people leave as better human beings than they were when they went in. Education. Job training. Rehab. Counseling. Enough independence and responsibility to let prisoners practice building the habits they’ll need to succeed once they get back out into the world.
That would obviously be a tremendous investment, especially in a country with such an insane incarceration rate. But it’s a necessary one if we want things to get better.
