That guy, Frank Abignale, on whom the film "Catch me if you can" is based, was a real criminal and served time in prisons in many countries around the world. He reckons the French have got it right when it comes to incarceration. In Sweden and Holland, it was like being in a holiday camp and in the US it was just brutal but in France, he reckons is was mediieval. Therefore, the "willingness" to do the crimes that would force you to go back there is reduced and it serves a real deterrence purpose.