> Do you not think their experience will cause them to think twice next time they have an impulse to act like this?
There it little evidence that it does. Punishment in general has extremely low utility when it comes to changing behaviour.
There may be value in some degree of punishment to satisfy societal needs, and there may be some value in incarceration to keep some particularly dangerous people off the street, or if the incarceration is used to enable training to reduce the chance of re-offending, but punishment alone is not an effective way of reducing negative behaviours - criminal or otherwise.
In some situations it's even directly counter-productive.
There it little evidence that it does. Punishment in general has extremely low utility when it comes to changing behaviour.
There may be value in some degree of punishment to satisfy societal needs, and there may be some value in incarceration to keep some particularly dangerous people off the street, or if the incarceration is used to enable training to reduce the chance of re-offending, but punishment alone is not an effective way of reducing negative behaviours - criminal or otherwise.
In some situations it's even directly counter-productive.