If you place them permanently in prison, you ensure they definitely aren't. You take people who can and will at different times of their lives pay taxes - perhaps not all that much, perhaps they become business owners via doing a trade - and turn them into a perpetual and permanent drain on the state and the rest of citizenry.
Then, you've governmental inefficiencies and general corruption to look at. Tell me, how and where are fixed speed cameras placed in SA (provided that's where you are). Are they in the wealthy neighbourhoods or the poor ones? What about ticket inspectors at train stations, are you more likely to see them in the more socioeconomically challenged areas?
To what extent are you willing to extend the government's control over law and imprisonment over the society it adminster's poorest members?
If you can, give this a go. I get it's long; I originally started a thread with this vid, hoping to start a conversation.
It essentially discusses how policing and imprisonment in America is used by the state to control poor populations and to provide an outlet for capitalist excess; basically, if capitalism cannot employ people at an appropriate rate, the state to an extent will find a reason to imprison those people by depriving them of alternatives.
Sadly agree with a lot of this - a spell in the inside isn’t the panacea most believe it to be. Not many positives just negatives all along the way