I just posted the following to the Violent Crime thread:
What I recommend is an incarceration system which forces inmates to earn their way out of prison through completion of academic work. Those who take longer to complete the work remain in prison longer. Simple way to keep inmates busy and those who can complete the work are likely to become productively employed upon release.
The end result would be that two guys sentenced to two years in prison each would spend drastically different amounts of time behind bars. Someone with an IQ fifteen points below average might take four years to complete the work while someone with an IQ fifteen points above average might be out in a few months. Inmates would have a huge catalog of courses to choose from in all sorts of subject areas. Some courses would be easy and earn the inmate very few points and other courses would be more difficult and would be worth a greater number of points. All would require a minimum of instructor time since the system would be almost completely automated. That way the cost would be low. On top of that inmates would live in single rooms so there would be no way to cheat. Someone who sloughed off all the way through high school would have a lot of catching up to do, but when they got out they'd be caught up and much more employable.
The most important thing about this system is that there would be no handicap (as in golf) given to compensate for different ability levels. All would be required to achieve the same regardless of natural ability. That's the key to a successful system in prison or out of prison. The other thing that would be incredibly important is that the courses would all need to be of high academic value. No courses pushing ideologies or values. It would all be very fact-based without any preaching about how people should behave. It would be just straight science, math, literature, technology, etc.