Rehabilitation is the only economically viable solution.
Education is the number one indicator of recidivism.
Most states spend more on prisons than they do on schools.
Discussion
Do you think there are people who don't want or can't be rehabilitated? What do we do with them?
Also do victims deserve some sense of justice and does rehabilitation by itself afford that?
I think the number of people who cannot be rehabilitated is incredibly small. There will always be a small number of people not safe to be in society.
Justice is a tricky thing. Justice has a bad tendency to become revenge. Victims deserve to be made whole where possible. But (especially in the case of violent crime) it’s not always possible. In those cases the best we can do is make them feel safe.
Criminal justice reform should focus on nonviolent offenders first. They make up the bulk of offenders and they cost the taxpayers the most money. In those cases, education and certain other reforms such as making background checks illegal for most jobs and housing would go a long way towards reducing recidivism.
I do support stiff penalties for violent crimes. Violent offenders have not just shown a lack of options but also a lack of respect for the lives of others. The system should still attempt to rehabilitate them - many are still released at some point so it is in the interest of society - but it is much more justifiable to lock them up for longer periods.
In general I'm OK with trying to reform non-violent criminals, and indeed trying to be too harsh on them is counter productive.
What absolutely enrages me is seeing violent criminals be given joke sentences like home detention for serious crimes. I think the onus is on them to rehabilitate, the rest of us would be happy to just have them off the street and victims deserve to feel like they got justice.
Broadly speaking I think we mostly agree.