If Our Prisons aren't Working, It's Insanity not to Change Them

    Comes a news story about a man who tries to hijack a car, but the 69-year-old woman victim will have none of it, and beats the man with her fists. He flees to her home, sets it on fire, and about dies in the fire.
   As I read the Deseret News article, I learn the alleged criminal, Christoper Bigler, had "an extensive criminal history." Then, I read the comments at the bottom of the online article. The solution some of the writers suggest is locking him up for good.
   I wonder at that. To begin with, we can't lock him up "for good." His wasn't a life offense. At some point, he will have to be set free.
   Still, that jail hasn't reformed Bigler is worthy of note. Will sending him back for a more-extended stay make a difference? It hasn't done the trick, so far. What is the old adage? "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." Whether Albert Einstein or Benjamin Franklin said that, or neither one of them, there is still truth in it.

   Would that when we saw a news article such as this, we took it as a wake-up call that we do need to change things up. What we are doing isn't working. If doing the same thing over and over even though we aren't getting results is insanity, then this is insanity.
   So, it behooves us to think, to reflect on what we aren't doing, to search and scramble and reflect, to brainstorm. It behooves us to build a better prison. Not one that locks the prisoner up tighter, but one that makes him more suited for being free when it is time to free him.