A society always has as much crime as it is willing to tolerate. When someone is placed in prison for any amount of time they become huge financial burden on society and imprisoning someone is just as affective at rehabilitation as a time is to children.
We could offer criminals the choice, in place of short to medium prison sentences they can choose different levels of corporal public punishment. It may seem barbaric, but we all know crime would go down, and I know I would rather be lashed and be done with it then be in prison for an extended period. I would also more likely have a change of heart regarding crime with the lashing.