Incarceration has symbolic value  A custodial sentence has strong symbolic value, for offenders, for victims and for society as a whole.  Exclusion from society and confiscation of freedoms that the state would normally protect at any cost is a powerful message, one that can be understood easily by both white collar fraudsters and semi-literate muggers. There are few more effective ways of communicating society’s disapproval and indicating the boundaries of its tolerance.  For all side proposition’s talk of long term consequences and proportionality, there remain a significant number of offenders and potential offenders who would perceive the resolution as a weakness to be exploited. We give up the symbol of incarceration at the cost of emboldening criminals.  Confidence in the state is founded on the state’s ability to protect its citizens and their property from physical harm. This is something on which all but the most extreme ends of the political spectrum would agree. Even if the state is no longer willing to wield violence against a criminal minority in protection of a law abiding majority, it should still be prepared to project the power that contemporary constitutional settlements have allowed it to retain. If it does not, the state risks being accused of forgetting its core duties in favour of more abstract notions of “harm”.