I believe that the country can, in fact, save a lot of future costs by focusing on the release by pardon, parole, or a new creative transition to a jobs program for non violent incarcerated individuals.
If you can find some funding, I would be interested in brainstorming part time on the general issues involved with your efforts. In my view law school clinics will advance the pardon process, but the voluntary participation of the 50 State Governors in collectively addressing a release program has the potential to impact more people and State budgets over the years ahead. Even Gov. Barbour says there is only a 30% recidivistic rate for released prisoners in his State that means 70% of the population could be focused on by State officials for early release based on their analysis