I get what you're saying, and I have some sympathy for it. But the thing is that I'm a Christian, so my moral code simply does not allow those feelings to becom

I get what you're saying, and I have some sympathy for it. But the thing is that I'm a Christian, so my moral code simply does not allow those feelings to become actions. Vengeance belongs to the Lord, alone. (Yes I am aware that other people interpret it differently, this applies to basically every topic. This is my interpretation.) The moral story arc of the New Testament is that proportional punishment is not justice. If people hate me for sticking to my moral code, fine. I hate to make arguments like that in a place with so many gray tribe members, but I feel like you could approach the same ideas with utilitarian arguments. It's not hard to make an argument that we should punish recidivism chance = 0 offenders to provide deterrence. But then the goal cannot be lowest crime, but the most efficient society.