Why do we build such fancy prisons?
Something that bothers me a lot is how much money we spend each year keeping up prisoners. It is bad enough how high the crime rate is and all the violence that it produces, but it is also a serious drain on government budgets. So, why is there not more demand that prisons be made cheaper and perhaps even profitable? Why should we build fortresses to keep in drug offenders? Why should we build fortresses at all? It seems like we could put them in simpler housing, especially the low risk inmates and find them something better to do than stamp license plates and pick up trash. Of course the really dangerous prisoners, keep them locked up in the fortresses, but most inmates simply aren't that kind.
What do you think? Is prison reform a good way to cut budgets?
Fancy is a relative term. What I mean is that prisons are not built or run in such a way as to maximize benefit to the taxpayer. Prisons should be cheap and effective. That means rehabilitating the prisoner (this includes not ruining him or her with inhumane conditions) while keeping costs as low as possible.