> so let's not kid ourselves that prison is more expensive than the alternatives: it isn't. I don't think I've heard even the strictest pro-prison people try t

> so let's not kid ourselves that prison is more expensive than the alternatives: it isn't. I don't think I've heard even the strictest pro-prison people try to seriously make the argument that prison is cheaper than housing for the same time periods of detention. Prison is really expensive, it's in a lot of ways a strict superset of housing. Even just holding people in preparation of a trial and getting them convicted is really expensive. Where are you getting these numbers from? > No, we are arguing about where that responsibility should be taken I mean, if you want to argue about that, sure. But my argument is that they're on the street right now and saying that they should have avoided getting addicted to drugs in the past is not particularly useful to the current conversation unless you have a time machine handy. > no criminalization = no judge to force rehab, of course Look, this is just a different argument. Are you arguing that rehab does actually work, but we need criminalization so we can force it? I have seen people argue that point, but it's not really an argument about personal responsibility, it's an argument that the state should have even more involvement in rehabilitation than it currently does.