[joeysteele]

I think that only people really deemed to be a danger to the public should be sent to prison. Anyone armed, committing violence at all or for all forms of sexual abuse.

Sadly in the UK, finance matters more and someone who is guilty of a financial crime more often than not can get a stiffer punishment than someone carrying out a violent act.

Prison is a training ground for how to commit more crimes, many things that go on in prisons are detrimental to rehabilitation too,so someone in for a weaker,say financial crime could come out far worse in attitude and aims than when they went in.

I would invest in the other areas of punishment more, such as probation but I would make it far more strict and intrusive to the criminals life.
The prison places could then be there for those who cause damage to property,who commit violent crime, who carry out sexual abuse and of course for the even more serious cases of murder and attempted murder.
So my short answer is that prison doesn't in my opinion work for the lesser offender and if something does need overhauling by the politicians, it is the waste of places taken up in prison by those lesser offenders.
Work out from a lesser financial crime say,then work out the cost of keeping such a person in prison,it is ridiculously high.the economics of madness,(in my view).