But instead we just lock up the criminal, because it’s cheaper.
Except, in the long run, it’s not. It’s only cheaper within the scope of one or two election cycles. Over the long haul, weighing the costs and economic benefits of making person a productive member of society again, it’s way cheaper to do that. But nobody ever won an election promising to spend more money now so that we don’t have to spend nearly as much in a few decades.
I feel like that is worded poorly. I think it should say something more like…
Granted it’s not as pithy, but the first version just gives me the mental image of a bunch of people belligerently standing in line in the dark at a locked door demanding to be let in.