Well, what on earth would you suggest as a replacement? Prison, along with other possible legal system punishments, serve a role as deterrent instead of punishment (indeed, I personally would say that their role as deterrent is much greater than their role as punishment). Simply saying that modern prisons form an ineffective punishment is not adressing the whole issue.
Sticking with drug offenses, are we really so desperate to deter them that we're willing to offer costly prison sentences that do little to correct the behavior or indeed deter people from using drugs? The negative effects of the drugs themselves serve as little deterrent and I would say they are far worse than any prison sentence.
Lots of people consider only the short term. The negative effects of drugs are long-term, and thus lots of people don't consider them fully. Prison sentences and other things kick in a lot quicker, however, so people will be a lot less likely to do drugs if prison serves as a deterrent.
I will be the first to admit that prison is not a perfect solution, and is far from it, but I have yet to come across a better alternative.
Well, what on earth would you suggest as a replacement? Prison, along with other possible legal system punishments, serve a role as deterrent instead of punishment (indeed, I personally would say that their role as deterrent is much greater than their role as punishment). Simply saying that modern prisons form an ineffective punishment is not adressing the whole issue.
I have a strong distaste for disproportionate sentencing, which seems to be a result of political convenience (hard to get reelected if you're soft on crime) and a disconnect between legislators/lobbyists (and sometimes a fevered general public -- judges aren't blameless either) who establish punishments and the convicts who suffer them. In other words, it's easy to place/raise a cost on others when you've never had to, and probably never will, pay it yourself.
What would I suggest as a replacement? Hell if I know. That the status quo sucks doesn't mean I know how best to change it.
You have to consider more than the individual criminal, you have to consider the rest of society. If you consider only the criminal, then yes, disproportionate sentencing is a bad thing. However, as I said, they also play the role of deterrent. Disproportionate sentences work wonderfully as deterrents.
Community service instead of imprisonment for non-violent criminals.
How on earth would you implement something like that? You would need to employ lots of people to observe the prisoners and make sure that they actually do the work. It would be done outside of the controlled environment of the prison, so more overseers would have to be hired to compensate for that. You would have to keep them under constant scrutiny to prevent them from running off, which, once again, requires more people and more costs. Even if you can so that, you then have to contend with the issue of forcing people to work, which would make them effectively slaves.