[sterkekoffie]

Prison in the U.S. is traumatic and life-ruining by design and people who are imprisoned become victims themselves. Not only that, but a huge number of offenders have previously been the victim of a crime, or will be after they're released. The world is not made up of attackers and sufferers, it's made up of people. You can waste your time allocating empathy based on your own flawed moral calculus or you can just try to see people as individuals and treat them accordingly. Note that this could also mean treating people worse than the justice system did.

If the empathy-allocating thing appeals to you, you can think about it in terms of externalities. If you can prevent recidivism, you can proactively "help the victims" by preventing their victimization in the first place. What drives recidivism? Primarily, poverty, unemployment, social marginalization, untreated mental health issues. People with no options will act as if they don't have options.