So why do we do it this way?

A new report on prisons does an admirable job of marking the worst aspects of the American prison system. In spending $60 billion a year for imprisoning 2.2 million convicts, we are buying:

• A 60% recidivism rate (3/5 convicts reoffend when they leave).
• Public health threats from poorly treated inmates (who bring diseases like tuberculosis back into society).
  
• High rates of violence between inmates and between inmates and staff, often from overcrowding and cutbacks in prison programming.

What's disappointing is that no one should need this report to know that there are better ways.