[ndiscussion]

> Society has a vital interest in reintegrating people who have been punished

Food for thought, but this is only true if we release them. For most of history, we simply executed criminals.

In most of the world, that's still the case (thieves without hands etc).

Without making a moral judgment on what's right or wrong, if most societies evolved that way, it probably means it's conducive to the long-term health and survival of societies. Survivorship bias and all that.

[InfiniteRand]

I think this actually varies a lot across cultures, although one common principle, historically at least, is that justice is less deadly for the rich than it is for the poor. For instance, the concept of blood money reduces the punishment of murder to a fine