> From wikipedia on recidivism "According to an April 2011 report by the Pew Center on the States, the average national recidivism rate for released prisoners i

> From wikipedia on recidivism "According to an April 2011 report by the Pew Center on the States, the average national recidivism rate for released prisoners is 43%." If 43% of all prisoners are re-arrested after they are released, then you can make a pretty good assumption that they were not committing crime they would have, if they were not locked up. Or you could assume that the current prison system, in the States, is actually making recidivism rates worse by treating its inmates in such an inhumane way - hurt people hurt people. One could discriminate between the two assumptions by comparing its recidivism rates with recidivism rates in the rest of the world. > As you know, though, different crimes are punished in different ways, which makes sense. Different crimes are punished in different ways. In most of the civilized world, punishment ranges from fines to more-or-less harsh limitations of one's freedom of movement. I don't remember corporal punishment being one of the possible consequences for theft.