Halfway houses have been given that moniker because they are seen as the halfway point from incarceration to being released back into public society, and as such are an opportunity for prisoners to re-adapt themselves to functioning well in society. The basic hope and reason for being for these community correction centers is to cut down on recidivism and to also save the community coffers some money from the cost of incarceration of these criminals. Halfway houses are often run by non-profits, but they also may be run by Federal, State, or local authorities, and even by large and small private corporations specifically dedicated to this particular industry. Consequently, because there are so many different entities involved in halfway houses, the quality, safety, usefulness, and expense of halfway houses will vary considerably from community to community. However, the overall concept of halfway houses in a country to which way too many people are incarcerated for way too much public monies spentand for way too many crimes that do not necessitate incarceration in the first place is sound, the execution behind it, may not be.
When it comes to our criminal justice system, the United States should be ashamedof itself that it locks-up such a high percentage of their population, often for "crimes" that are either non-violent, or substance abuse, with non-victims, and for nothing more than overall poor decisions, that should not necessitate the penalty of incarceration. Often the point of sentencing criminals to prison is punishment, as well as to simply get these certain people off the street, but in neither case, has appropriate justice been served. The concept of halfway houses is to provide an alternative that is far less disruptive to the criminal himself, but also less damaging to society as a whole.
A halfway house should be seen as an opportunity for someone that has made what society has deemed to have been a poor decision, and to help correct the situation in such a way, that both the public as well as the offender, benefit. This means, that rather than the halfway house being the stopping point between prison and freedom, it should instead, be the starting point for certain individuals that qualify, as an alternative to incarceration in the first place. That is to say, for example, if a person is convicted of a victimless crime, but is either current employed, or has had a history of steady employment, that it would serve the public more good to see that person continue with this employment, than to wrest that away from him, by making him serve his time in prison.
There should be in this country, far more alternatives to being locked up from the get-go, especially considering that the cost of monitoring an individual in a halfway house or similar, is relatively inexpensive, and because too, technology has never been better to track someone through monitoring devices such as ankle bracelets and the like. The United States has increased the percentage of the amount of its citizens incarcerated at a staggering rate over the last few decades; it is time, to look for something more becoming of a nation that claims to be the beacon of freedom and justice.