Too bad there are no second chances for the victims though.
The goal of penal system should not be punishment, but rather prevention of crime. Punishment is only one aspect of crime prevention.
IMHO, imprisonment has two goals:
1. deterrence, to prevent _another_ person to commit the same crime in the future
2. get really dangerous people away from the general population (this would be rare)
That is, at the very best, an extremely simplified extreme opinion.
Victims have every right to hate their offenders and a just society should do everything they can to help the victims, including punishing the offender. I don't get why this is an extreme pov but apparently it is.
Yes, society should do everything it can to help the victims---to help the victims to heal. Society has no imperative to help the victims to hate.
A Canadian ad executive, Paul Coffin, pleaded guilty to fifteen counts of defrauding the federal government of $1.5 million. For five years, he and his wife had lived the good life by double billing for his services and submitting bogus invoices for fictitious employees. During the investigation, he had been uncooperative and experienced many memory “lapses” about his criminal activities.
He received a conditional sentence (no jail time). The judge accepted the man’s suggestion that instead of prison he should deliver a series of lectures on ethics to university students. The proposed topics of these heartfelt lectures are: “Never compromise your integrity, no matter what the perceived benefit.” “The only person who can rob you of your reputation, credibility, and good name is yourself.”
The low re-offending rates speaks for themselves: Most people who commit a crime do not re-offend if they're treated properly. Most of them are ordinary people that made a mistake, not psychopaths.