That’s the difference between American view of prison as only punishment and deterrent and not rehabilitation. If a criminal is violent and needs to isolated

That’s the difference between American view of prison as only punishment and deterrent and not rehabilitation. If a criminal is violent and needs to isolated from society or needs rehabilitation programs skills training etc to live a moral /legal life then perhaps prison can offer those . Even with traditional non white collar crimes , like say prostitution or small drug dealers offender are often victims as well , putting them in prison is counter productive. The punishment philosophy is based on the premise that punishment is an deterrent and severe punishment will make people not break the law. This is outdated view. Decision making when committing a crime is not driven by fear of imprisonment. People do not always make rational decisions , especially under the influence of a substance . our risk perception and tolerance is not statistically optimal plenty of games and tv shows revolve around this . Logical reasoning arguments aside , on pure numbers rate of incarceration and convictions, recidivism per capita in the U.S. is by far the highest in developed economies and the difference is very stark compared to say Norway where rehabilitation is the focus, famously prisons are so empty they rent it out to other countries, a mass shooter complains about not having access to latest play station. I am not even touching on the problems with the slavery , for profit incentives , the dis proportionate racial representation , racial /economic sentencing biases for similar crimes in the U.S.