Seems to me we all have roughly the same mindset about all this: imprison the dangerous ones, try to change them through prison/probation programs, thieves and others to make reparation, foreigners who commit the worst crimes to be deported. But we realise that all this costs too much money and there are insufficient resources and staff. I would add my own view that the people in power do not have to live near the social problems caused by crims, or school problems caused by kids from chaotic neglectful and violent homes, so it is all academic to them.
What gets me though is this: there is high unemployment, and the unemployed are being (rightly) paid benefits to live. Many of these unemployed, especially the long term ones, are older people with lots of skills. Would it not be better if many were trained and paid to help with rehabilitating the criminals? Or trained in security to protect the ones doing the training/rehab?
Take my family for instance: I have the skills to teach English as a second language, and bookkeeping; my husband has the skills to teach painting and decorating. He is also ex military with training in both unarmed combat and firearms. We are just your average couple. Western countries like the UK and Australia are full of people like us. We are past retirement age now, but we both lost our jobs in our 50s, and never really got proper work since.
The current system is a wicked waste of people, skills and potential.