Prisoners Leave Prison, You Know

A lot of sentencing policy (such as it is) is recent years has stopped at the "lock 'em up and throw away the key" stage. What most people don't realize at the time they make that argument is that an overwhelming majority of people who go to prison will get out someday. When they do, their confinement often makes it difficult to return to society and leads to further incarceration. Yesterday's USA Today had a great (but sad) story of several men who were released directly from solitary confinement in Texas prisons to the outside world. Solitary, at least in some form, is probably a necessary evil of prison management. But policy makers and the general public should be aware of the problems it creates long term.