It's hard to know if some of these people really were in a situation of involuntary servitude or if there's a few ungrateful namby-pamby's who have no idea that prison would be worse. Anecdotally, there are successes from these diversion programs, though I can't say I agree 100% with how they are run.
Just recently the prison system handed the legislature a $1.5
Billion bill for their "tough-on-crime" posturing, knowing darn well we are already broke.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/opinion/editorials/tulsa-world-editorial-the-state-s-expensive-justice-tastes-are/article_90f810f8-236c-5bcf-88f4-c14a1f79af92.htmlIt only make sense that there should be programs that address non-violent offenders and those whose crime stem from mental illnesses, but there is no good reason the trade-off has to be the state committing tax fraud, workers comp fraud, food stamp fraud, etc.