Yes, Texas is not a very criminal friendly place. In fact my father in law apparently shot a thief in the back as he was trying to leave his (my father in law's) home. He was not accused of any crime, though it is true the man didn't die. I'm not confident of all the details either, since my wife was young at the time and all I have to go on is what she's told me.

Texas is hardly representative of the entire U.S. however: we just executed our 300th prisoner, where the next highest state is somewhere in the 80s. It'd be interesting to know what the crime rate is here vs. other places.

As far as rehabilitation vs. deterrent, prison is primarily punishment, (and therefor a deterrent) and any rehabilitation that takes place there is a bonus. I support measures to help prisoners gain good moral codes, but I am under no illusion that our prisons are an optimal place for this teaching to take place.

If you think that prisons are not a deterrant to crime, try to image what tomorrow would be like if it were a national "free crime" day where no one would be arrested for anything, be it rape, crime, stealing, etc. I'm sure there would be a chaotic crime spree because people would know they could get away with whatever they wanted. Prisons are a deterrent.

That being said, I do think that instilling proper moral values in people is the best approach to dealing with crime. I agree with Paul that this isn't being done, and I'm not sure that society has a good answer (other than the aforementioned church) how it could be. I think most of us would agree that parents should be the ones primarily responsible for instilling morals in their children, but what should we do when they fail to do their job or the moral values simply don't take? I don't really have a good answer to this, and until we do I see no choice but to rely on punishment to deter criminal behavior.