I find the idea of retributive punishment abhorrent. Killing someone because they killed someone, does that make the system any better than the person who killed another?
I take a moral stance similar to utilitarianism, I first seek to reduce the amount of suffering present in the world, then increase the amount of pleasure.
I'll agree that any society needs systems in place that incentivize people to not break the rules, but mandatory sentencing, the death penalty, and private prisons really got to go, as these are all things that are contrarian to the idea of using our legal system for rehabilitation. Right now it seems like most people have some sort of justice boner when it comes people getting sentenced. How many times have you heard "oh I hope that guy gets raped in prison" or "i hope he gets beat up" or "you know what they do to guys like him", it's disgusting that people will cheer for using the legal system to put someone in a box where people will do extrajudicial actions to them. People don't seem to care about reformation for criminals (in my experience), even though they are people too