Comment by vimax
2 years ago
Okay, if someone cannot be "rehabilitated" where is the value to society or to that person in punishing them to make them suffer more on top of separating them from the public?
2 years ago
Okay, if someone cannot be "rehabilitated" where is the value to society or to that person in punishing them to make them suffer more on top of separating them from the public?
This is a very hard subject and mountains of paper have been produced debating it without any clear resolution in sight. I don't think a HN discussion is going to resolve it one way or the other.
One of many possible values to society is that punishment reduces the motivation of vigilantes. For example if person A killed person B’s child, then person B (or a mob encourage by B) might be less motivated to seek vigilante punishment if there is some chance that a legal system could punish person A instead.
The value is delivering justice and deterring would be criminals