Unfortunately, as the article demonstrates, our prisons are anything but humane.

I don't understand why we should make prison suck less.

You do realize that if you make prison overly "humane", it eliminates prison as a form of deterrence.

Yet, there are many examples of making prisons more humane having a positive impact on recidivism.

And conversely, there is plenty of evidence that severity of punishment does not have a significant impact on crime rates.

The simple "heavier punishment -> less crime" appeals only to simplistic logic, but in general is not observed in reality, either in the US or abroad.

The odd thing about many people in the "deterrence" crowd is that so many don't seem to actually be concerned about lowering crime rates, and are concerned moreso with exacting their pound of flesh for the injustice committed by criminals.

Much better immediate punishments could be devised if the goal was deterrence, but society has phased those out. The modern philosophical justification of prison is physical separation from society and environment to prevent repeat offenses.

Making prison "suck less" might even give inmates a shot at a life after they are released. But given that you see prison "suckage" as a feature (especially given the generally accepted ideas of what goes on in prison), I can only conclude that you've ruled out any possibility of yourself ever ending up there, and thus don't really care.

Do you have evidence that deterrence works?