Some thoughts on prison and violence and new models of living..?

I've been reading Wasted by Mark Johnson and I've picked out a few extracts about his time in prison:

1. Violence in prison is not that different from the violence that many offenders have faced in early life.
2. The violence in the system reinforces the notion that violence is a normal and acceptable part of life outside prison.
3. The violence in prison makes it easier for released offenders to act and see themselves as an offender  and not think twice about more violence.
4. People become what we they do. So prison is a pretty good way of making hardened violent life-criminals..

He goes on to describe the rehab place where he tries to get clean. Its a massive old house in the middle of nowhere, and its where where JR Tolkien wrote Lord of the Rings. Now as something who works for the national trust does this show us something about the value of places to change lives? Is it easier to have perspective on where you want to be in a beautiful historic backdrop than a council estate..?

So i've been thinking a lot recently about the cost of keeping one human being alive. Keeping myself in food and shelter currently costs quite a lot of money. but we could organise it so that the basic living of food and shelter was much much much much cheaper. we just have to change the system.

so what could all this look like..?

• Camphill community in wakefield is a pretty good example. have a look: http://www.pennine.org.uk/community/index.php

What about buying a big old house somewhere (on a mortgage through a company) and setting up a house for people leaving prison, or needing respite, but on their own terms. we could call it turnaround or something. So they wouldn't be stuck in a flat on their own, but neither would they be part of any scheme. we grow the food we need, and people come and go. 

does this sound so stupid? 

would people just abuse it? 

have catch 22 or someone already done this?
does it sound too much like a cult?

is it ridiculous putting people's choices in their own hands?