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Originally Posted by Varius
1) No more 20 to life jail sentences. If you are convicted of anything worth 20 years or more, you are immediately put to death. No waiting years on Death Row either, make it happen that week or at the very least few weeks.
You will get those complaining that people need a second chance, or what about the wrongly convicted? That's unfortunate for them but I'm pretty sure they make up a minuscule amount of today's prisons.
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My only real problem with this is that there have been hundreds of people who have been exonerated through DNA evidence in recent years. Of course now we could use that DNA evidence up front at the trail and not do it retroactively as most of these people were found guilty before DNA evidence was really used. That said, it would take a fundamental shift of our legal system for this to save money. It actually costs more to put someone to death than it does to lock them up for life. The reason is because of all the legal issues that go into place to make sure we aren't executing innocent people.
It is easy to say that only a tiny number of innocent people will be put to death, but is it so easy if one of those people is you or someone you love?
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2) Impose a much higher tax on items deemed 'unhealthy" by the FDA.
Obviously, the hardest part here is this must be some agreed upon objective method for measuring and rating a product's unhealthiness. Junk food will no longer cost way less than healthy food and thus people buying junk because it's cheaper, will switch.
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I agree fully. One of the reasons people eat bad food is because it is cheap. If it were cheaper to eat healthy more people might do it.
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3) Utilize the massive amount of funds gained in steps 1 and 2 and put them towards public healthcare, new hospitals, better doctors and training, more public sports programs, etc...
Canada's health care system works fairly well, with the funding required no longer being a problem, a similar system can be implemented in the States easily.
I just reduced crime, solved prison over-crowding, introduced national health care, got people into healthier lifestyles and possibly even reduced national debt (with the surplus of funds) with a few simple suggestions 
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I'm not so sure about all of the savings though. Sure if we can change eating habits it will make people healthier over the long run, but it could take decades for that actually happen. If we stick with the current legal system you will solve prison overcrowding, but it will actually be more expensive than keeping them all locked up.