I don’t have a problem with trying to reduce the cost of incarcerating criminals. Here are a few good ideas: 1 - Capitol Punishment swiftly for murderers, rapists, child molesters, drug smugglers, high level drug dealers, and traitors like Jane Fonda and John Kerry. 2 - Shorter sentences for lesser crimes but make the prisons so that the criminals don’t want to be there: bread, rice, beans, and water the only food; no TV, no Radio, no phones, no computers, no internet, no conjugal visits, no visitors of any kind, no weight rooms, no libraries, no sports, no outside time, etc. You get sentenced to 2 years in prison and you spend 2 years in your very small cell. 3 - Three strikes and you’re out (see number 1).
Two words. Joe Arpio.
I like the concept of prison farms. Sitting in a cell alone without contact with other prisoners is in effect psychological punishment. Let them out just to work. It works. Working in the hot sun or cold where one has human contact is a reward.
I oddly do not approve of long sentences for those that can be reformed. The first sentence should be harsh in the extreme within the limits of not torture. It should be short. It should deprive the prisoner of little contact with other prisoners except for work. It should instill in his mind I never want to be here again. If you violate again and caught one must resign himself to the farm for years.