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Who said what the criminal justice system is "supposed to" do? You, or state legislators who enact criminal laws and penalties?
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<p>Yes, god knows that the US has the correct view on how to treat criminal offenders. That's why we are #24th in the world for per capita murders (right behind a bunch of countries in S.America, Africa, and the former soviet block, note that most of these are war zones). Compare our systems of punishments and rehabilitation to almost all of western europe, canada, australia, new zealand, and even japan and you will see incredible differences in how we treat criminals. </p>
<p>Our interpretation of the justice system is flawed and it should be painfully obvious. We have 5% of the worlds population but 25% of it's prisoners, many of whom are repeat offenders! (Granted of course that number included drug related criminals but that's a whole different can of worms...)</p>