Prison - What does it achieve? At what cost?

I have just read a post of a clip from QI on my Facebook page about American prisons. It made me interested in stat's for UK prisons. I've got more than a passing interest because I was a member of the Independent Monitoring Board for Gloucester Prison before it was closed. So I went to 2 reputable sources:-

House of Commons Prison Population Statistics.
www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/sn04334.pdf

Prison Reform Trust - Bromley Briefing 2016
www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/Portals/0/.../summer%202016%20briefing.pdf

It really doesn't make pleasant reading. Please give it a go & plough through. What we as a society do with people who infringe our laws reflects directly on what our values are, what sort of people we are & what sort of a country we are.

This is a flavour form the House of Commons:-

• In August 2016 there were 81,290 men & 3,898 women in prison in England & Wales. Of that 94% were adults, 5% were 18-20, 0.6% were 15-17
• Sentence - 41% were serving over 4 years
• Crime - Violence was the highest at 25%, Sexual crimes & Drugs were the next at 15%
•  Age - 32% were between 21 - 29.
• Foreigh Nationals - 10,000, of which 50% were European.
• Non White - 25% which is wholly disproportionate to the population.
• Overcrowding - 60% of prisons
• Assaults in prison - 20,000 in 2015
• Self Harm - 32,000 - 77% men - 60% under 30. A 40% rise in 2 years.
• Deaths - 2015 - 257 - 35% self inflicted. 3% murders. Average age for natural causes 56.
• We have 146 prisoners per 100,000 population, the highest in Western Europe.

This is from the Bromley Briefings:-

• Sexual Assaults - 300 recorded in 2015
• Serious Incidents - requiring Tactical Response Teams  - 400 in 2014 / 15
• Fires - 57% increase last year
• Sentences - getting longer. Short sentences less effective than community sentences.
• Indeterminate Sentences -16% - Prisoners don't know if or when they will be released. 36% of prisoners are on these. 

According to Focus on Prisoner Education it costs £65,000 to imprison someone. Then it costs £40,000 per year to keep them imprisoned. 

There must be a better way. Why don't we look at the Scandinavian models which are much better & stop looking at the USA models which have never worked.