Les Miserables

I've been reading Les Miserables and thinking about the economic crisis. It used to be that when a person was thrown in jail, they were taught a skill, usually something like brick-laying or some other type of manual labor. They would then work to pay for their food and their stay at jail. At the end of the ordeal, they came out of prison with a skill and a pocketful of cash from the "leftovers" after the state deducted their living expenses.

Now we spend an exorbitant amount of money on state prisons, and our nations are heavily in debt. Yes, I think our prisons used to be cruel and harsh, but we have over-corrected ourselves.