But society has no choice. Society has to punish me, and I accept that. Make me work for ten years, allow me a modest subsistence-level lifestyle, and for ten years every dollar I earn will go to repay the victims of my crimes. You suggest there is no need to punish you. A. Well, society is so mad at me, so mad at me, because one of their own betrayed them.
Society can only punish.
For them there is no alternative. You can't rehabilitate me, truly rehabilitate me, because that would involve bringing me back into the fold, which is unthinkable. It's very different for a drug-addled thief. He can never become one of the elite, but he can be permitted to rejoin society in his own way. He doesn't want to be an elite and there is no threat of him doing so.