Is our criminal justice system broken?

This question has been on people's minds for some time now. Prisons are becoming over crowded, gang crime has risen, and it's getting expensive. In an editorial by the New York Times it talks about a bill being passed to try and fix our prison system. People are facing harsher sentences and the "one, two, three strikes your out" way of thinking. I feel like if someone isn't a danger to other people that they shouldn't be sentenced to go to prison for such a long amount of time, it costs us so much money to keep people there. Probation works just as well, and maybe if they break their probation they could face a harsher punishment. Our prisons have become so overcrowded and gang violence has risen because of it. If there aren't as many people in prison, prison gangs have no one to recruit. In the end it all works out better.