You would be surprised at how well prison wardens can control the bad apples within the prison. It's not by giving the inmate more time to serve. Most of the trouble makers are doing life without parole, More time served means nothing to them.  They control them by throwing them in the hole. Today it's called the Shoe.  In the shoe you've got no privileges at all. Nada. The only activity for the day is listening to them bring your food around 3 times a day. It's hard time to say the least. No books no radio, no time out of your cell, Nothing. The saying, you don't know what you've got till it's gone fits the shoe perfectly (Pun intended)  After a while If an inmate in the shoe can prove he can follow the rules he goes up a step and, he gets his books back. After a certain amount of time if he's still cooperating he gets his radio back. within time if the inmate is still following the rules he gets to go back to general populating and given all of his privileges back.  The penile system has found this is the best way to control inmates. It's not by punishing them with more and more time served,  It's through the reward system.  So why doesn't this reward system work for young kids and gang bangers on the street?  1st. What are you going to reward a teenager with if he stays on the good road?  More basketball courts?  That doesn't work. More Scholarships to collage? that doesn't work.  Unless a kid is fortunate enough to get born again he has a good chance of heading straight to gangs and crime and that means more prisons and more of the same. My Mother wasn't mother of the year by any means. But the one thing she did right is she made sure we were all in church on Sunday morning.  I hated it.  But just by me being there and hearing the Gospel,  Kingdom seeds were planted. God's said My word will not come back void.  And within 10 years those tiny mustard seeds would begin to break open and I became born again Christian and my life completely changed. I wasn't perfect and I would have slips with alcohol off and on (About 3 times a year?) for a few years, But I was yoked up with someone who was perfect.  People are surprised there are born again Christians in jail but their are more than you'd think. Didn't Jesus say I was in Prison and you visited me?  And you know what?  The Christians in jail have a perfect avenue to wittiness to people that nobody else can reach.  I did. And the most troubled inmates are the ones who seemed to listen the most. I don't have all the answers to turn around troubled kids. But if you can start early enough and let them hear the Gospel and the life Of Jesus Christ you can let the Holy Spirit do the rest and not only turn a kids life around in the future,  but give them eternal life as well.  There is ONE thing an inmate gets to keep when he's in  the hole, it's the Bible.  After a while an inmate can get so bored he'll read anything. And there have been men who have found Christ in the hole.  You can ask any warden in any prison if A REAL jail house conversion with an inmate isn't one of the best rehabilitation's an inmate can get and he'll say yes. The answer for gangs, crime, violence, rebellion etc. Is Jesus Christ. The Government has proven over and over again they aren't  helping. It's the church. The church has got to reach out to these kids someway, somehow to turn this around. They've gotta hear it from someone who's been there and has come out of it. There not going to listen to a priest or a pastor tell them Jesus loves them because they've never walked in the kids shoes. You need someone who's been where they are and has come out of it. You know who helps an alcoholic get sober? It's not the doctor or the priest or family.  It's another alcoholic. He's living proof. He's the one who can give the alcoholic hope again and help get him out of it. Too many churches are failing at making any kind of a REAL effort to save our kids. How is helping people get to the next level in church going to help these kids?  Their killing each other and we're worried about how we can get blessed. Why do we serve ourselves and call it Christianity?  I want to end on a good note by saying there are churches and communities and organization reaching out to these kids and making a difference. Kids are hearing the Gospel and without a doubt lives are being changed. We just need more churches to step up and do the same.  Bottom line, we need more Christians who care.