by Brian Koehn, opinion contributor – 12/04/25 8:30 AM ET (from “The Hill” Article here)
I served as a U.S. Marine before spending my career running some of America’s most complex prisons. Those years taught me about leadership, structure and the human cost when systems bend and break. Here is what I learned: Corrections is not only about punishment or security, and it is not the end of the justice process. Rather, it is where everything we fail to fix upstream finally shows up.
Inside, we do not just manage the incarcerated. We deal with untreated addiction, mental illness, trauma and poverty, with few resources for success. In the 2016 Survey of Prison Inmates, nearly two-thirds said they used drugs in the month before arrest, and about half met the criteria for a substance use disorder in the year before admission. Roughly one in four said they had been told they had major depression.
These are not one-off issues. They pile up in the corrections system.
Across the country, the same roots show up again and again: unstable housing and work, addiction, and untreated trauma. Where opportunity and care are limited, incarceration goes up. This is not about politics. It is about safety and making good use of taxpayer money. When we do not invest in prevention, we pay for prison instead. That is the most expensive and least effective way to solve these problems.
Corrections professionals are the backbone of public safety, yet they are often overlooked. Research shows that correctional officers face post-traumatic stress at rates higher than combat veterans. The average life expectancy of a correctional officer is only about 59 years. That should alarm all of us. These are people who serve the public every day. When residents and staff are both in crisis, the system cannot hold. Taking care of this workforce is how we keep facilities safe and deliver results taxpayers can trust.
Ask people who have lived it for 30 years, the staff and residents, and most will tell you it feels worse today. The U.S. incarceration rate rose more than 220 percent between 1980 and 2014 before it finally started to drop, and it has only slightly declined since then. The mental health caseload is deeper. Addiction is harder. Staffing is thinner. The work is more dangerous and less supported. Studies show correctional officers now face greater levels of stress, illness and trauma than in previous decades.
We can change that.
Prevention and treatment cost less than prison. Instead of paying for heads in beds, we would do well to pay for sobriety, for fewer returns to custody, and for steady reentry we can verify. Expand diversion, crisis stabilization and recovery programs before the cell door closes. Correctional staff are public safety professionals; build on trauma-informed wellness, fair pay and realistic staffing. Groups like One Voice United and Desert Waters Correctional Outreach show what is possible when staff wellness and leadership are treated as essential.
The goal is to run prisons in a way that changes lives and makes communities safer.
Governors, legislators and sheriffs should reward results, not volume. When better outcomes save taxpayer dollars, reinvest a portion of the savings into bonuses for the people doing the work. Return the rest to communities or use it for proactive programs like diversion and recovery. The Cicero Institute’s performance-based outcomes contracting model shows how measurable outcomes and accountability can link taxpayer dollars directly to results that improve public safety and reduce recidivism.
About 95 percent of all state prisoners will eventually return to their communities after incarceration.
What happens inside those walls doesn’t stay there; it determines what kind of neighbors, workers and families come home.
Brian Koehn is CEO of Social Purpose Corrections and a former warden and security expert.