Let's see, forcing a thief to repay his victim. On the surface, it sounds like a great idea but, when you do a little deeper exploration of the topic, it is pretty much an empty glass. If the thief could afford to repay his victim, he wouldn't be a thief in the first place.
But, warehousing doesn't seem to be working, either. Too many prisons have too many perks that make them more desirable than life on the outside for many prisoners.
First, we need to cut the costs of warehousing prisoners. Get rid of the perks (Libraries, TVs, high school and college classes, medical care (other than basic medical care), gyms, etc. Second, stop building jails with individual cells. Erect very secure 100,00 sq. ft. buildings that have no cells, no bunks, a few unbreakable windows and some toilets and showers. There is one guard high up in a tower that allows him to see everything taking place on the open floor below and NO ACCESS to him by the prisoners. Food trolleys are brought in three times a day via a one-way controlled gate and the prisoners are responsible for feeding themselves.
These people can't obey the laws within society, so let them live within a world of their own making and see what happens. I'm tired of prisons being turned into a vacation club. They aren't supposed to be nice places to live and we need to ensure that they aren't. The whole point of prison is to create an environment that no one wants to be in and no one wants to return to.
By taking some of these steps, we can cut that average cost of $40,000/yr to warehouse each prisoner by at least half. Consider the costs as the annual salary paid for a worker. Most don't have the education, training or experience to get jobs paying that much, so why should we be spending that amount of money on them? It's crazy!!
That's been tried in California. We don't try to reform prisoners anymore just incarcerate them. Petty criminals go in, hardened, bitter, smarter criminals come out.
Pure genius. I am paying prison guards 100K a year to turn car thieves, pickpockets and dopers into carjackers, bankrobbers, and murderers.
If you are healthy enough to steal you are healthy enough to work...thieves don't steal for sustenance... they steal for the fun of stealing...its a high...its about power...its about displacing anger on those who are not powerful enough to defeat you or deny you or kill you...
That is why God invented the gun...the gun is about justice...denying the thief the rapist the murderer his ill gotten gain and protecting yourself and family from such...protection from even the thieves who pretend to be shepherds...
imo