We've had thousands of years of incarcerating criminals, and only a very few years of trying to treat them, and even now when we try to treat criminals, there are a lot of people who reject that approach.
But the turning point for the divided country, Fr Dennis believes, came when Mr Mandela was freed from prison in 1990 - after 27 years of being incarcerated for anti-apartheid activities - bringing with him an "aura of peace".
Given that 2.3 million people are currently incarcerated nationwide -- and that it costs taxpayers an average of $31,286 a year to incarcerate just one inmate -- the price of recidivism is huge for cash-strapped states and devastating for those who end up, again, behind bars.
After all, her supporters appear to have heavily favored legalization, and continuing to spend billions of dollars a year to incarcerate people in some states for what they can legally do in others is not exactly a fiscally responsible use of taxpayer dollars.
On average, it costs the State of Pennsylvania over $44,000 per year to incarcerate an individual.
It costs over £55,000 a year to incarcerate a woman.
And it pays 50 percent of the cost (which can go as high as $200,000 per child per year) for incarcerating children sent to far-flung juvenile facilities.
Following his conviction, Chandler was incarcerated at Union Correctional Institution, and during his 17 years of incarceration until his execution, he was notable as not having had a single visitor.
Instead, he has been imprisoned in China for those five years, and is to serve a total of 11 years — incarcerated for "an incitement to subvert state power".
Fifty-four men with a mean age of 42 years, currently incarcerated, meeting DSM-IV criteria for ADHD and amphetamine dependence.
