If you do the time, then you've paid your debt to society. Because our society defines crime and justice in this manner, the victims of crimes often seek the most severe possible punishment for their offenders. Society tells them this will bring justice, but it often leaves them feeling empty and unsatisfied after getting what they sought. Vengeance does not address the other important needs of victims. It cannot restore their losses, answer their questions, relieve their fears, help them make sense of their tragedy or heal their wounds.
Prisons rehabilitate relatively few offenders.
Most offenders return to the community as individuals who are then even more antisocial than before they were incarcerated. It seems obvious to all that our system is broken and we do not know how to fix it. A well-known anthropologist once said that human beings are the only species on earth that recognizes what is not working and then does more of the same. Politicians cry out for more and longer prison terms and the building of prisons has become a major growth industry. In some states, the punishment budget exceeds the education budget.