Effectiveness of Prisons

I really don't think prisons are as effective as they could/should be. As someone mentioned in class this week, prisoners learn how to commit crime without getting caught from other prisoners. People just do their time and continue to live their lives afterwards, like rehab. There may be some people in N.A/A.A to actually try and quit, but I know there are some people that are court ordered and just stay clean for as long as they have to.

Furthermore, they then have a record which has created problems for many ex-felons that try to lead a new life. It is difficult to get hired anywhere because of this. They can no longer vote (correct me if I'm wrong) - their privileges (and rights too damn it!) are being taken away from U.S. citizens. Is that really fair? Are they learning any type of lesson?

With all the images being presented to us and the suggestion that the government or "whoever" hides certain images from the public, I was wondering what would happen if the authors we're reading about got their wish. Imagine if we had full disclosure about everything. Every little dirty deed was public knowledge. Nothing would be hidden, good or bad. Would the government still be able to operate? Would torture stop? Or would the government just have to stop pretending to be ashamed about it? What about society? Both in the US and society in general? Can we function without lies, embellishments and hiding the truth?