Like many issues us americans need to first put our elitism away and look around the world at how other countries do things for examples that work.
Look at the country with the highest number of prisoners per capita and its the US. Look at our 70% re incarceration rate vs some European and Scandinavian countries 20%.
The data is clear. Our system of punishment over rehabilitation is a national disgrace.
I will respectfully disagree and say that Scandinavia (I used to be a student in a city called Umeå in Sweden) is a poor comparison to most anything American.
They are a basically homogeneous, 99.9% educated and relatively small societies with none of the divisive history, cultural barriers and sheer magnitude of population, economic burden or strategic importance that pushes mass societies like ours into some tight places.
Do we have things to learn from them, sure—— is their method the secret for diminishing American inequality and strife? My opinion is no.
I don’t claim to have “the answer” but any solution that lasts in this society would have to come from this society.