I do not agree with the statement "Prison is Torture". In Canada, being sent to jail is the punishment, you are not sent there to be punished.  There are very violent people in our society and they are as violent in prison as they are in society, perhaps more so. It is a very complex system that is underfunded, understaffed and out of mind until someone writes a story. If you are sent to prison in our society you have done something pretty bad and likely more than once or twice.  Society itself is Schizophrenic when it comes to corrections as likely half the people think you can change behaviour and the other half don't. Most criminal activity occurs when the offender is in their teens to early twenties. Then they just burn out, get a job or get married. The career criminal is another matter. I agree that many white collar criminals should have other punishments and not jail, but society does need to deal with the hard core that is left. It means spending money and lots of it.