That's a very interesting historical viewpoint of the justice system. I've often wondered what in our culture (in the US at least) lead to such a draconian system. I think the thing I take issue with most isn't even the system proper itself as much as the culture around it: stripping felons of voting rights (in a country billing itself as the "Land of the Free"), using prisoners as slave labor (we have protected slavery in the bill of rghts!), and treating them almost like lepers after they have served their sentence/punishment. It's sickening.