We need to be done with prisons. We spend billions upon billions of dollars annually funding them, with little in return to show for it. Nationwide, over 60% of people sent to prison eventually return. We incarcerate them again, and return them to the community again, only for a good portion to be sent back to prison yet again for another expensive stay.

Prisons don’t work to change people’s behavior. As much as we’d like to think otherwise, it just isn’t so. Punishment punishes, which is fine as far as it goes. Which isn’t very far. We need to stop wasting our time, money, and effort on imprisonment that only perpetuates more of the same behavior.

We’re stuck in a parental mentality that assumes the threat of punishment, if it’s severe enough, will always deter people from their worst instincts and misbehavior. If we spank our kids enough, send them to their rooms enough, and take away enough privileges — well then, by god—they’ll learn their lesson and straighten up.

That may or may not work with kids, but not adults. Punishment doesn’t change behavior for the better, it doesn’t change anyone’s thinking — it merely drives bad behavior underground. It just makes people better at hiding their dysfunction from those who might punish them.

And, given that most people fully believe they’ll never be caught in the first place because they’re too sneaky, smart, or crafty, the threat of punishment exists only as a vague possibility anyway.

And the funny thing is, in some respects, they’re absolutely correct. The vast majority of crime is never detected. And, of those crimes that are reported or detected, only a portion lead to someone’s arrest. And, of those arrested, only a portion are actually charged. And, of those charged, only a portion are convicted. And, of those convicted, only a portion are incarcerated.

So, even getting caught committing a crime is no guarantee that you’ll ever see the inside of a prison cell. It’s simply not a deterrent because it rarely actually happens, unless, that is, you’re poor, non-white, or otherwise live on the margins of society.

We have to get it out of our heads that if we build enough prisons to incarcerate enough people for a long enough time, our crime problem will be solved. Crime is at all time lows now anyway, so our very basis for continuing mass incarceration is more about s0ciety’s barely acknowledged need to lash out than it is about rational efforts to combat crime.

Research shows interventions exist that can positively impact antisocial thinking and behavior. Cognitive Behavioral Therapies, for example, have been shown very effective at helping people develop problem-solving and other skills that reduce their risk of continued engagement in crime.

Here’s a lever we can pull to help break the cycle of dysfunction, criminal thinking, and misery that contributes to crime. Here’s a place to invest our resources that doesn’t involve erecting multi-million dollar monuments to our frustration and anger at those who run afoul of the law.

There are probably those who should be incarcerated forever. That’s true. Violent thugs who murder, assault, and rape need to be safely locked away. Not because that will fix them or make them model citizens somehow, but because they need to be separated from society for as long as possible.

But the vast majority of inmates in our country are not violent thugs. Most are nonviolent drug and property offenders who could be safely sanctioned and rehabilitated in the community more cheaply, more efficiently, and more effectively than any prison ever could.

Prisons have had a good run over the last few hundred years. It’s time to put the majority of them out of business and start doing what actually works to change antisocial behavior for the better.

It’s possible, and it’s time.