Researchers from a number of different schools came together to study the impact of prison on deterring repeat offenders, specifically with regard to inmates from Michigan. Scientists worked together from the University of California, State University of New York, University of Colorado School of Medicine and other academic institutes.

They discovered that prison likely doesn't effectively deter repeat offenders, the threat of prison time and suffering the punishment of prison time isn't likely to have a drastic impact on changing the behavior of the offender.

A great deal of offenders today behind bars are struggling with mental illness which contributes greatly to their struggles, and they need help and education, not just punishment for their actions.

Despite some prison conditions being formerly described as unbearable at times, cruel and inhuman even, often times degrading, but it still hasn't been enough to incentivize certain individuals to refrain from violating the property rights of others.

Some might say that if prison doesn't change their behavior, that perhaps harsher punishment is the answer, capital punishment even, but there are many reasons why that isn't a good idea. A majority of criminologists today also agree, that capital punishment hasn't proven to be an effective deterrent in the past.

The threat of going to jail alone isn't going to be enough to prevent people from engaging in criminality, the value to them that they get from their criminality at the time surpasses the risk and the punishment at the very least, regardless of how severe. This leaves room for alternative solutions to be considered that seek to reduce recidivism.

A great deal of solutions have been proposed and experimented with over the years, from calls for less supervision of ex-prisoners, to victim-offender mediation, among other approaches.

One program won't fix all.

Just as the reasons for committing crimes are diverse so too are the individuals who commit them, and one program or approach to rehabilitation and criminality isn't going to work for everyone in the same way. Some might find more success with a certain program than others. This is one of the great faults of the system, that it tries to treat every individual the same, just as we do with public schools, hoping to get successful results. But there might be other less-costly approaches that produce better results.

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