You know, a lot of folks are saying that prison should be to reform and rehabilitate. In the perfect world, I suppose, it would be. It should be. In some cases it is. But in most cases it's not.
And that's just terrible. Boo-hoo-hoo...
Instead, it's a place where the dregs of society are stored away for the good of the whole. Now, locked away, instead of being a predatory nucience upon a law abiding society, they become a predatory nucience on a preditory nucience society. This makes them to have to sharpen their skills a bit. Maybe even their claws.
There's your rehabilitation. Read 'em and weep.
I think prison should be for punishment, first and foremost. And I make NO apologies for it. I think, in our touchy-feely society, by the time a dreg FINALLY makes it to the BIG house, he's a worthless piece of nothing. If he were to be kept alive for any reason at all it should be for forced labor or some other purpose meant only to benefit the society he had been deemed unworthy to live amongst.
But that's just me.