Failing to either incarcerate or rehabilitate criminals is cruel for everyone. When the state fails at its most basic duty in the social contract---that we put

Failing to either incarcerate or rehabilitate criminals is cruel for everyone. When the state fails at its most basic duty in the social contract---that we put justice in the state's hands exclusively instead of doled out arbitrarily in the street---, people will justifiably ask what's the point of having a state at all. That's a dangerous path to go down.