How about obeying the law as an alternative to incarceration? Of course
this would imply that a solid effort is made to educate the populous on the
differences between being a productive member of society versus a destructive
one. Then there's the problem of providing sufficient funding for both
schools
and prisons while electing legislators promising lower taxes and less
government.
As a result it seems that there has been a steady balance of complaints
regarding
prisons, schools, and taxes which makes for about the fairest compromise
possible.