text: prison or rehabilitation?? take a drug addict for instance... its so much cheaper to put him/her on a rehabilitation scheme that to lock em up. and you might say it doesnt achieve any but for many people neither does prison there are two issues going on.   first the american people have lost all respect for the law.  prohibition in the 20s did a great deal to change people's opinions of laws and turn respect for the law into a joke.  the 55 mph speed limit and the laws against drugs like marajuana have removed all traces of respect for the law from most people.   law enforcement itself is oppressive against the poor. the poor are not protected by cops, they need protection from cops.   third you have to reform the crooks running the justice system to have a chance at reforming the inhabitents of the justice system. how can prison inmates watching wardens taking bribes, often loading food paid for by the prison system or goods made in the system into private trucks to be sold for the benifit of the warden's personal pocketbook? now try to tell them to go honest. minor crimes wind up imprisoned with hardened crimanals.  the system itself creates immense anger among the incarcerated.   next most who go in because of drugs are not really there because of a drug problem. they might have been caught selling drugs. might have had a large quanity of drugs. the reality is that most people are quite happy and in control of their drug habits. the exceptions being the more addictive drugs like crack and herion.  changing the environment and screening for those with real addictions will make more sense. the guy in prison for weed probably has no drug problem, instead they have education, anti-authority and economic problems. so if you get him to quit smoking weed you just changed the crime not the problem.   so the first reform would be to ban lawyers from writing laws. many people are in trouble with the law and even prison for laws they could not understand or for laws they felt were unjust.   economically roads need to be there for alterntive means out of poverty. there will always be those who take the quick money, but the majority of people are in crime because of socio or economic reasons. they grow up with cops on their backs even when they are doing nothing wrong. their friends, relitives, often parents going back multiple generations are in prison or ex-cons. it's become a family tradition and in some neighborhoods it's expected to do time sooner or later. that or die on the street. you have to break up that social acceptance of crime. while laws are unjust and enforcement so heavy against the poor it will be construed as racism and as oppression. there has to be legitimate outs for such people and changing the social jail from one with bars to one without bars doesn't change the incarceration.   prisons are a manifestation of corruption in this nation. they cost us dearly. every person spends probably %10-20 of their income dealing with the way we handle law in this nation and it's enforcement. publicly people like our last two presidents are openly bought. corporations like microsoft openly taunt the world with illegal activties. well known celeberties commit felonies and walk away to write books about how they got away with it. how then can you tell a youngster not to steal? not to do what the big crooks are doing?  with a cops thieving, beating and harrassing those around them. with a school system that attempts to dehumanize it's patrons and offers little actual useful skills for work and career. with college nothing but a dream for so many in this nation. jobs scarce and the fragmentation of our ethnic, religious and political groups. it's a wonder anybody who starts poor bothers to ever get a job. then when released an offender comes out with nothing, knowing nobody sometimes but other offenders and with limited job opportunities. of course they are going to get into more trouble.   i agree totally with you about it being better to rehabilitate. however to rehabilitate you have to take care of the root causes. as our economy crumbles crime will shoot up again. as tensions increase between various