I remember hearing a story back in high school about a leader who solved the crime problem in his country. I don't remember the leader, or the country, or when this was supposed to have happened, but I do remember the method used in the story. Who knows if this is even true or not, but here it goes.

To solve the crime problem, this leader had ALL the criminals released, and ALL the prison torn down. In their place he build a new prison, with a single cell in it. If you were convicted of a crime, any crime, you were sentenced to that single cell. Once someone else was convicted of a crime, they were sentenced to that single cell, and the first person gets taken out, and executed. All of sudden there was some incentive to keep your butt out of jail.

Again, I don't know if this is a true story or not, but an interesting idea.