Quote Originally Posted by Gelatinous Cube
Close, but no cigar.

In general, crimes can be classified as major and minor. In my opinion, people who commit minor crimes (shoplifting or some such) deserve the option of rehabilitation with the expectation of being sent back into society. For major crimes (Pre-Meditated Murder, Rape, ect.) there is no point in rehabilitating them. That would cost money, and is not garunteed to work anyway. They should simple be locked up.

All assuming, of course, that they are found guilty. All people are innocent until proven guilty.
Well that's your opinion, many eminent voices on the matter (Roxin, Stratenwerth, Sancinetti, Kant) will disagree with you. It's not a matter of degree, though you're right about one thing and wrong at the same time. Rehabilitation suppose that there's a certain morality and the society has the elevated ground respect of the individual, so it's an instrumentalization of the individual. You're correct that they should be "locked up" for some time, and then realesed, and that is a matter of degree, but everybody should be "locked up" just for matters of retribution.