On: Investigation finds inmates built computers and hi...

[narag]

...freedom for a specified period of time should be the total of their debt to society.

I always find the retributionist theory unconfortable. I'd rather understand incarceration as a protection for potential new victims and a warning to others. Also it should be a way to "fix" the inmates, but unfortunately that's often wishful thinking.

[ant6n → narag]

Rehabilitation is probably much more likely if your society believes that this is the main purpose of incarceration.

[kpil → ant6n]

Rehabilitation is perhaps possible for certain criminals - why not give everyone the benefit of a doubt, but not an unlimited number of times.

I personally think that if a person has been convicted for battery or something worse more than once, the protection of others needs to be prioritized.

But it's also worth considering that the prisons in US (or pretty much anywhere) are probably not the best rehabilitating environments, so there seems to be room for improvement...

[Ygg2 → narag]

There is some merit to it.

In games where there is common good, one way to avoid tragedy of commons is by punishment.

[narag → Ygg2]

That's not retribution but "general prevention", a signal to others.

Retribution is in the neighbourhood of religion. Nobody but gods can really know what happened and what was the exact intention.

At the time eye for an eye appeared (Hammurabi) it was a way to limit vengeance, that used to snowball very quickly.