There are better uses of taxpayer dollars than to maintain high levels of incarceration simply to enrich the shareholders of for-profit prisons or to maintain prison jobs.
First-time offenders may be less likely to identify their substance use as problematic or conversely, they may be more likely to perceive that they can maintain prison-initiated abstinence without postrelease community health service intervention.
Traditionally conservative states, driven by a need to save money on building and maintaining prisons, have taken the lead in scaling back policies of mass incarceration.
The Social Safety Ministry, the country's police force, is among North Korea's most powerful agencies, maintaining prisons, conducting investigations of potential opponents of the regime, and protecting leading officials.
Desmond Tutu will lead protesters on Thursday campaigning against British security firm G4S's role in maintaining prisons and detention centres in the West Bank and Israel.
But as crime rates have plummeted to 40-year lows and reduced the political potency of the fear of crime, fiscal pressures from the exploding cost of building and maintaining prisons have prompted states to find alternatives to incarceration.
This style of management allows detainees to experience a sense of dignity and warmth, and stirs their consciousness in maintaining prison order and opposing the bullies among inmates.
No two experiences with incarceration are the same, though, so I asked a few other felons to share their stories about maintaining prison friendships on the outside.
While concerns over the cost of public prison administration merit attention and serious debate, the idea that the expense of maintaining prison facilities justifies private ownership is just wrong.
They promise to maintain roads, prisons, schools and welfare and health care programs, and fear the political consequences of breaking the promises.
