Bill D. - Can you provide references? I thought it cost about $7000.00 a year for each child enrolled in Head Start while it costs about $28,000.00 per year to incarcerate a prisoner. I'm not a great statistician but it appears to be more cost effective to provide early intervention.

It also appears that Head Start provides a program that is racially balanced while prisons do not. Could this justify providing Head Start to more Blacks and Hispanics?

Providing early intervention and/or rehab. may be never ending but so is the costly incarceration of those who might otherwise be helped to integrate back into society as useful citizens.

Don't get me wrong, there are some prisoners who should be incarcerated forever!

Its also interesting to note that while the prison population is aging, their medical needs are also increasing thus driving up the cost of incarceration to an all-time high. Wouldn't it be better to provide the support they need before they become so dependent?