Not a godly sort but this passage seems appropriate: > Then they themselves also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or

Not a godly sort but this passage seems appropriate: > Then they themselves also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?' Then He will answer them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me'. These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. America has a horrible problem with incarceration. It seems obvious but if the state takes away someone's rights (freedom) the state assumes a duty of care for those individuals. And a duty of care isn't extinguished because it costs too much or would be difficult to comply with or would be politically unpopular. Specific to costs... if incarceration is costing too much then do something about the underlying root causes that result in incarceration.