[d_jackson_kf]

"I'm mostly referring to prisoners that do things like kill, rape, extort,..."

That a small minority of prisoners

"...and pounce on another's freedom to pursue happiness and such."

Although that may or may not catch many more in your definition.

[jeremyarussell]

Then we should be using money on people that violate the more severe laws, and not waste it on people that smoke pot, etc.

I suppose in my mind we need to do it in an order like this, first change who is getting arrested, then decide if those people deserve minimum wage, etc.