$91,000 it takes to keep a man in prison.  I wonder what else could be done with that money.

I wonder how many people could be stopped from going to prison if that money was used in other ways.  It could, for instance, be used to pay a full-time minder to watch the offender, to get him a job, help him take the kiddies to school, or … Well, it could go a long way to some kind of rehabilitation. It could fund proper stopping violence programmes, women's refuges, drug and drink rehabilitation. It could help the offender's family get by, because, of course, the $91,000 is only the tip of the money that goes out into disfunctional and poor households.

Instead the government is cutting back programmes that have worked in reducing youth offending, violence, and supported families with parenting skills and rehabilitation.  The government prefers to increase the number of offenders that each cost $91,000 a year to keep on a programme that does not lessen offending and often confirms offenders in a life of crime.