Alot of good points here. No one likes to spend their hard earned money on career criminals. And the system is, in many/most respects, a failure.

I was encouraged by a program where hardened criminals were greatly affected by a Rodeo / Horse farm program. Seems the attention they had to utilize to break and train the animal afforded them a positive outlook on life. Perhaps for the first time in their life. Pretty corny, huh? But the results were amazing.

It obviously won't work for all prisoners but being creative will go a long way to rehabilitating these people.

For youger offenders I think it's a good idea to relocate them after they go through some type of boot camp program. Returning to the same environment will suck them back in.