I think punishment can reduce honest opportunities when you go from zero jail to some jail, but once you're in prison for a year, my guess is the additional effect of having a record and disrupting your career is lower, with basic ways you'd expect like being out of contact with people you know, or being behind on technical training.
Likewise, I think networking also doesn't account for much when your prison sentence is five or ten years instead of three. There's a big jump from zero to one, and a much smaller jump after. (Regardless, that's one reason why I explicitly excluded organized crime.)
These are a few reasons why I think corporal punishment might be a good idea.
Why go straight to corporal punishment rather than any of the other non-custodial solutions like electronic tagging? Or is the brutality part of the point?
Because with corporal punishment once it's over you're done. You don't drop off the face of the earth for weeks to years like you do with prison. I'd totally take lashes in exchange for a reduced sentence.
The biggest problem I have with corporal punishment is the same with capital punishment; I could never live knowing a not 100% effective justice system harms or kills innocent people, and I'm supporting it by electing the leaders and paying the money to implement it.
An incarceration focused on rehabilitation rather than punishment is something i think would work a lot better, I could at least stand sending innocent people to such a place.
In some ways, I do think corporal punishment is more humane. Given the option of twenty lashes or a year in jail, sign me up for the cat-o-nines. Time is precious, and pain is fleeting.
I'd too take the lash, these days. But keep in mind that back when that was popular, they didn't have antibiotics nor germ theory, and being unable to do physical labor for any length of time was a lot more problematic. Death was a common consequence.
Within a few years, "tough on crime" US politicians will lead to people being routinely maimed or beaten to death. Soundbites, "accidents happen", etc etc, next back-door execution please.
Likewise, I think networking also doesn't account for much when your prison sentence is five or ten years instead of three. There's a big jump from zero to one, and a much smaller jump after. (Regardless, that's one reason why I explicitly excluded organized crime.)
These are a few reasons why I think corporal punishment might be a good idea.