They had to have started on this road of offenses somehow, and I'd wager it usually starts with the mildly stupid things.

That doesn't speak very highly of the rehabilitative capacity of prison then, does it? Why are we even sending them?

They can't hurt the rest of us while they rot in prison.

That's really it. Rehabilitation and retribution are only minor factors, for the liberal and conservative voters respectively. The main factor is just stopping crime by warehousing people until they die or get too old to cause trouble.

It's expensive, but you have to admit that it is extremely effective.

LOL, Your comment about stopping crime by locking people up made me laugh hard.

I've done time in the federal system, and on one of my transfers between prisons, I got to sit beside a supermax transfer prisoner. Really, he was a pretty nice fellow. Said he had to kill a guard once in a while to get out and see the sights and have some decent food. He was on his way to court for that murder case trial.