Are you aware of how much money it costs society to send someone to prison? A LOT more than a rehab program.
- You have direct cost of imprisonment ~$60k a year
- The costs of prosecution (no idea what this costs though)
- Once someone has been to prison they are much more likely to be involved in crime again, and become a repeat customer of the industrial prison complex
- We loose a tax payer
- The perp will have no retirement fund, thus the government is on the hook again during retirement years.
- Increased insurance costs for everyone else due to a higher crime rate
I don't have the time or resources to do an accurate cost estimation but we could do some basic napkin math. Lets say 10 years in prison during their lifetime and a loss of $15k tax per year over a 30 year period (due to time spent in prison and loss of earning potential once they're out).
(10 * $60k) + (30 * $15k) = $1,050,000 loss to the State. That's a shit load of money. Crime prevention looks a lot cheaper now doesn't it?