�30,000 a year to keep a prisoner in jail? Why would they put a person committing a crime costing less than?

this in jail for a year, and what alternatives to imprisonment are there. Do you think they work, prison is meant to be a deterrent, it has been shown in studies in America and here that prison does not work as a deterrent and that the position taken by justice systems both in the UK and abroad has become increasingly vindictive were the desire is to cause as much pain as possible and the rehabilitative aspect of the punishment is less important. I am not a bleeding heart liberal but I do think that if something does not work as it's supposed to it should not be utilized as a solution to the criminal problem's faced by this and other countries. The expense of putting people in jail for crime and especially for non-violent crime is not sustainable and I wondered what other ways restitution can be made to the victims and not only in monetary terms. And seriously shooting them all is not an option.