Why Are Prisons a Social Crime?

In America there are four and a half times as many crimes to every million population to day as there were 20 years ago. The most horrible aspect is that our national crime is urder, not robbery, embezzlement or rape. In view of such a terrible condition of affairs, it seems ridiculous to prate of the protection society derives from its prisons. When the most thoroughly organized, centralized institution has proven a complete social failure, the dullest must begin to question its right to exist.