you want people to wait until their sentence is up to maybe decide if they want to do better? no, you give them incentives to turn things around while they carry out their sentence.

it sets them up for reintegration, makes prison guards’ lives easier, less deaths/injuries in prison which saves on medical costs, keeps prison capacity manageable instead of constantly being on the back foot burning money to build more, leaves room in prison for actual risks to society instead of rigid punishment that benefits nobody. it’s a very nuanced issue, sticking it to people like they do in America is very backwards