Shifting Gears to Rehabilitation

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There is a real perception that America's crime rate is spiraling into crisis. Not only is the prison population dramatically rising, most Americans believe that our streets are becoming more unsafe. Between the talk shows and columnists, we are led to believe that the moral fabric of our society has so decayed that our future is predictably bleak. During the thick of this last political campaign season, we were bombarded with sound bites and slogans that reinforced our worst fears. As a result, the American public has adopted a simplistic viewpoint on crime with an even more simplistic solution: "Lock them all up."

Despite public sentiment to lock up the entire criminal …