I too have, unfortunately, had to visit people in prison and THEY even said it wasn't as bad as it needed to be to dissuade people from offending or reoffending. My biggest gripe with treatment of prisoners is that they throw everyone into the mix and you end up next to whomever you end up next to. I had a relative who was in for DWI (and never hurt anyone) and had a murderer on one side of him and a rapist on the other. I think that violent offenders need to be kept totally away from the rest of the prison population. As far as violent offenders go, I don't think they should be given a chance to go back out into society.