[ericfrenkiel]

Like what exactly? You accurately describe the cause-and-effect of not prosecuting petty crime whatsoever and that prison is not a sufficient deterrent, so what would be “less severe, more immediate, and more ‘certain’” that would impel a miscreant to not commit a crime? Please provide a specific example.

[cameldrv]

I don't know. That's why I say we need to come up with them. It's not easy to reconcile our values with the obvious ones. It's not easy to reconcile our values with the current criminal justice/prison system either though. My point is simply abolishing or greatly scaling back the current criminal justice/prison system without a replacement doesn't address the needs of society that the current system (poorly) serves. Without some mechanism to dissuade antisocial behavior, you get anarchy for a brief period, and then people start organizing vigilante groups, and then the vigilante group becomes the government.