[weeksie]

If you were in a medieval society where punishment was a demonstration of the monarch's power as displayed on the body of an offender, then yeah I guess? Depends on what you want a prison to do. For grisly vengeance, a town square pillory is a pretty good approach.

But if you pretend to care about the larger good of society (but still harbor that mean streak) then you lock people away, assure the population you're doing your best to "reform" them, and choose the most expensive form of torture you can imagine: keeping people alive for the rest of their lives all the while subjecting them to sexual violence from their fellow prisoners.

Has the benefit of fewer angry riots over public execution and torture. More predictable.

If you actually care about people you create a system like they have in Norway.