Prison as presently constituted should be abolished. It makes the prisoners more dangerous and motivates them to reoffend, especially if they are violent sociopaths.
In Jim's world, there would be three levels of retribution for crime:
1) All unprovoked violent attacks should be punished by death. People who plot crimes like rape and assault are broken in their heads, we don't know what to do about them, when we release them they reoffend, and life in prison a) costs a fortune and b) brutalizes the others they come in contact with.
2) All property crime should be punished by flogging or some othr immediate and physical punishment.
3) Property criminals who reoffend should be isolated from society in a "criminals only" zone, from which no escape is possible and into which no resources are put except erecting and maintaining the fence.
The current system is broken beyond repair. let's fix it.
You're on the right track.
The present system is an ill-inspired socialist utopian fantasy(correction and rehabilitation, indeed!), and deserves to be destroyed root and branch.
Corporal punishment for certain offences would actually be far less costly, in economic and social terms, and far less inhumane than prison.
For example, take the situation of a man, the sole support of his family, who steals a stereo.
Put him in prison and you not only risk throwing his family on to the welfare rolls, but you also send him to the best training ground for future criminals.
Give him a flogging and you can send him back to work to pay restitution and support his family the next day.
Property criminals who reoffend should be isolated from society in a "criminals only" zone, from which no escape is possible and into which no resources are put except erecting and maintaining the fence.
This sounds like something similar to a gulag, without the routine barbarism of the administration and the political prisoners. Northern Alaska sounds like a perfect place for it.