> We can see these effects in the economy if you look closely, the labor participation rate among men is declining, most new jobs (which are service jobs) go to

> We can see these effects in the economy if you look closely, the labor participation rate among men is declining, most new jobs (which are service jobs) go to women, millions of men are missing in our society due to this system which throws away human capital. For what? Unless you think the declining labour participation is due to people being incarcerated I'm not certain how it's related? I, morally, think that the only justifiable punishment for a crime is what is needed to prevent recurrence - either through the same societal member or from other societal members. The fact that murder is highly punished definitely dissuades some proportion of potential murderers from murdering. From what I've seen of the efficacy of restorative justice I'm excited - it seems to greatly reduce recidivism while also lowering societal ostracization and coming home from jail to find a community that rejects you can directly contribute to higher recidivism. That all said, I also think that's it's pretty reprehensible how we treat criminals today - subcontracting out housing and care has been shown to greatly increase recidivism which increases costs in the long run. I think this stance is acceptable if you consider all criminals to be lost causes that are just running out the clock on their lives since they're defective, in such a case minimizing costs/day with the assumption that the term of punishment is fixed serves to minimize the cost to society... But I disagree strongly with the assumption that all or, even, most criminals are lost causes.