Indeed . And it seems that having relatively short sentencing and a focus on rehabilitation decreases the chances of someone being bad again . Besides the obvious economical benefits from getting people to going back to being good consumers and positive contributors to society as fast as possible , there is also a human level It is nicer to be nice to people than to be mean . Aka , it feels better to be forgive full than revenge ridden when choosing what to feel and think about people who don ' t follow the rules . It just seems better to help them becoming good citizens , rather than just spank them and then just release them without any tools to handle life outside prison in a normal and accepted way .