[mburbank]

And you can't make a human brain omlette without cracking skulls. But we're not making omlettes here, were incarcerating people.

It all comes down to what you think prison is for. For people on death row you can pretty much discount rehabilitation as a goal, but I prefer the idea that a life sentence is primarily to keep society safe and a significant punishment in and of itself.

If our goal is punishment and retribution, and we use cost effectiveness as an argument, we could torture people much more efficiently and much more cheaply. I think it is unhealthy for the soul of a country to actively invest in retribution. I also think it's dangerous. Once a practice becomes thinkable it is soon being done. Once it's done, the taboo's against applying it wherever it's concidered usefull grow weak. Then the deffinition of what's 'usefull' gets loose.