[oberstein]

Some other perspectives on "rehabilitation": it's easy to associate that word with treatments like Anders Breivik's, which to many (most?) Americans seems insane and they feel he should just be shot. A variant of 2 is that "rehabilitation" in a prison setting makes no sense not because of moral failings but because the methods just make it more likely the prisoner is institutionalized instead. This is the case with many mentally ill people who are stable, on medication, etc., but in efforts beyond that to "rehabilitate" by e.g. giving them housing near the facilities or part-time (less than 10 hours a week) work (with 30% of all income they take unless you can move out) they end up locking them in with dependence. Another variant of 2, people for the most part are either "habilitated" already or not before prison and after prison. Many types of crimes that result in prison sentences aren't really indicative of a person in need of "rehabilitation", just a person that made a mistake (like submitting too much to vices like greed). The time in prison acts as a deterrent to help bolster weak wills, but if those who end up there anyway change at all it will only be from forced introspection as their normal life falls away for a while. They don't need much prison time or "rehabilitation", just incentive not to do what they did again. And on the other side, there's the feeling that people like Breivik could never be "rehabilitated" and in fact weren't "habilitated" to begin with. Better to shoot those people, or, failing that, at least make their lifetime in prison unenjoyable.

I think you can get people to agree to other mandates of the justice system beyond pure punishment as deterrent if your other mandate is more specific, detailed, and limited than "rehabilitation". For instance, lowering remission rates, or keeping employment rates pre and post prison similar...

[Mz]

A blurb I recall: Upwards of 90% of people on death row have such severe head injuries that you can find evidence of it with an x-ray if there are no medical records.

For some people, "rehabilitation" that does not involve serious medical intervention not currently possible is just not going to solve the problem. No amount of disincentives or will power or whatever is going to help someone behave better if they are literally brain damaged.