Almost 10 years inside here. Going on Monday to have all the charges dismissed.
I didn't realize Unlocked was your organization.
In contrast, the American system aims for penance, which is why we call it penetentiary. You have to "pay for your actions" - which has absolutely nothing to do with rehabilitation and preventing recidivism. Paying for your actions is deeply ingrained is the American zeitgeist - making the concept of favoring rehabilitation appear immoral.
Regardless, it could be argued that rehabilitating a perpetrator of more severe crimes is a harsher form of punitive justice. Living with your (newly acquired) guilt and regret about your actions is more difficult than hanging out with, and learning from, your peers in crime university - prison.
Also, selling heroin is often manslaughter.
> Sexual recidivism rates range from 5 percent after three years to 24 percent after 15 years.
Also, I wouldn't put murder and rape in the same sentence. There are some situations where murder reasoning might be debatable even if still wrong (self defense against and archenemy that promised to assassinate your family, for example).
But rape? There's no rationalizing rape other than mental illness.
I don't want to open a can of worms here, but I had to write this.
* I agree that what most of us generally mean in colloquial usage of the term "rape" is never justifiable
* However, in many jurisdictions, the legal definition of "rape" may be different and significantly broader than our colloquial usage. As an immediate example, a completely informed and consensual sexual experience between two teenagers may be considered "statutory rape", with all the prison, registered offender, difficulty getting a job and social stigma that follows a rape conviction. Whereas I personally don't think two teenagers having sex is indicative of mental illness.
It sucks, but the longer I live, the less immediately easily categorizable or black & white things are :<
20 year old having sex with a 17 year old isn’t mental illness.
As an aside, I learned the other day that in Brazil the age of consent is 14:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_of_consent_in_South_Ameri...
You can be convicted of the crime for a lot of reasons other than lack of consent. A common example of that is a 20 year old with a 17 year old in many states.
So someone who is a murderer is more likely to commit crimes when released than a rapist.