I can PROVE that 'prison works'.
Take Jimmy Bloggs, who is a seasoned burglar. He commits an average of one offence per day.
He is locked up for seven years and released after five. That is almost two thousand crimes he has been unable to commit.
There is a possibility too that he MAY make a decision that he prefers freedom to jail.
Using our ineffectual community penalties, he is still available for offending over those five years.
Why do criminals offend? - Because they CAN!