There has been a significant change in correctional philosophy in the U.S. over the last few years. Many state legislatures recognized that they were spending a whole heck of a lot of money on incarceration, and it didn't seem to be doing any good.

In the Reagan Era of the 1980s, the trend was away from rehabilitation and toward ever-increasing harshness in treating criminals. Nancy Reagan's "War on Drugs" led a trend toward excessive punishment for drug addicts, and then came "Three Strikes" laws that put a person in prison for life for three felonies.

Now the pendulum has swung back toward job training, addiction treatment, and behavior modification programs intended to reduce recidivism. Lots of people are angry about the radical changes in corrections that the California State Legislature has enacted, but those changes seem to be helping.

-Joe-