Claim: We, In America, Need to rethink the way we define crime and the way we punish it.

Sorry for the late response, I kept receiving an error when I tried to get to this topic. But here we are finally. I thoroughly enjoyed your response and it does, In fact, Seems that we agree on just about everything right up until the methods. So I will try to address all your points with completeness. It's hard to say that either are the primary point, They kind of go hand and hand. Having offenders of victimless crimes in prisons is part of the problem, I'll address that in the scope that it relates to this argument and save the rest for later. Like you said, They are stuck next to other criminals. But are all criminals created equal? Picture a person in jail because they smoked some pot. Sitting in a room with 30 people convicted of violent crimes. How do you think that pothead is going to turn out when he leaves the system. Strap in! Because it gets worse. The living conditions for these group cells are just barely livable. People have no personal space at all. They have half a bunk bed and a box of basic clothes and toiletries. They get two or three jumpsuits to wear for the week at the most. The more calm criminals get assaulted by the violent criminals. These group cells even develop power laws and shun or even make an any out of you if you're to nice to the COs watching over you. Sounds stressful right? But don't worry. You only have to put up with it 24/7. The food they serve is enough to keep you alive and that is all it is. That's actually the only reason that I begrudgingly call it food in the first place. You kind of glazed over about the part about them being separate from their homes. There's a lot to unpack there. This means you're fired from your job, You're evicted from your house or if you own your home you're falling behind on the mortgage and possibly getting foreclosed on. If you have a car you can probably kiss that goodbye unless you got lucky and parked it somewhere safe. You're probably going to lose most of your relationships besides maybe immediate family, So better hope you have a good support system. Cause criminals have tons of those right? The one thing you didn't mention was the part where they have to eventually go back out into the world and live a normal life. Tell me, How would you fair in the world, If you spent 5 years in a human dog kennel. As far as human treatment goes, The solution is twofold 1) Provide prisoners with a higher standard of living, This has been done in other countries where the prison populations are lower and it has worked wonders for rehabilitation. Which brings me to my next point 2) Lower the prison population. A huge chunk of the people that are imprisoned simply do not need to be there. Drug use should not be a crime because preventing self harm should not be a criminal justice issue. Any act that does not have a victim or potential victim (oneself cannot be a victim of their own crimes) should not be a criminal justice system. If we did this. There would be a visible improvement in prison treatment literally overnight. My problem with justice is that it's basically useless in the justice system. Yes I see the irony of this statement. But if I'm right, It won't be called the justice system anymore. Justice means to get what you deserve. There is no objective way to tell what they deserve and what's worse is that even if we could find a good way to know what we deserve, There is no point in it. Giving them what they deserve (which, By the way, I think is not possible) wouldn't bring a dead relative back or undo a robbery. How does a drug user deserve to suffer? We're going to make them suffer for making themselves suffer? They were already doing that for us. That's why I reject Justice. It simply is meaningless. It just makes us feel good inside to know that the bad guy got his punishment in the end. Score one for humanity. You see what I mean? Punishment is along the same line of thinking as justice. It's the thing you deserve. So when justice gets thrown out, So does the punishment. But the important thing is why you punish somebody. When you punish a kid, Do you do it to make them suffer? No, You do it to teach them a lesson. This is rehabilitation. So picture punishment as smacking a child and rehabilitation as putting them in time out and telling them to think about what they've done. The first one is pointless and only teaches them to behave because they don't want to suffer. But now they think suffering is a good way to teach. Guess what, We just made a monster. This is why I think that I think separation and rehabilitation are the only two necessary aspects of prison. Morality is just the path to laws and that's it. The justice system should only be there to protect us from criminals. There is no practical reason to make them suffer. I find potential-victimhood sufficient. Although that 1 vs 1 million comment you made has me doubting, Could you give an example?