I was thinking on the penchant for gov to throw everybody into prison at, I think, something like 75 grand a year per prisoner. This seems kinda expensive and I have some alternatives.
The first is for the dedicated recidivist. We should fence off a place, in the middle of a desert and surround said place with gun emplacements. Then we take those determined to live by their own rules, sterilize them, male and female, and deliver them to their new home. We could drop lumber and food on them and just leave them alone. No guards, no nothing. If they stick their heads out they get said heads blowed off. They want to live by their own rules and we should let them!
That idea was tested 350 years ago in Van Diemen's Land and now everyone wants to live there.
Beyond that, a healthy number of people in prison are non-violent people who are more guilty of drug abuse than anything else. Study after study clearly indicates that drug rehab is more effective than prison where drug addiction is concerned.
My second thought is for white collar criminals (we seem to have a LOT of them). In their case the length of their punishment would depend of the severity of their crime. The punishment itself would be 'pauperization'. They lose EVERYTHING and will be forced to live off the kindness of strangers or starve. If they make any economic headway then gov will swoop down and take that too. In other words they would be forced to live just like those who have nothing (homeless, mentally ill, lazy, etc). If they get caught trying to escape then appropriate action would be taken (stalks come to mind).
"Pauperization"! Great word. As far as I understand it judges possess the power to make pauperization happen - but they don't do it. Fining a man who is worth over 1/2 billion dollars the piddling sum of 19 million, as recently happened, is no punishment at all. The judicial system has the power to pauperize and judges get that power, not from the people, but from political and corporate players. Steal someone's watch you go to prison, steal someone's investments you get fined and a couple of years in a federal country club.
