General Discussion

I think that is because that's because our justice system is based on punishment, including the concept that punishment may be undeserved. And there is a basis for that view in the entire concept of fairness. Most of us think that, though life may not be fair, we have a moral obligation to be fair to each other.

I've struggled with this, not because I don't agree that we should be fair to each other - I do - but I also know from personal experience that a person can do things which for one reason or another it may not be fair at all to consider those deeds as "his or her fault" - and yet, if those actions cannot be otherwise stopped, the person cannot go free in society without endangering that society. In the case closest to me, the individual has TBI, but there are many things which can bring about that situation.

Whatever happened to Trump, and regardless how much of what he is today is or is not his "fault" - I do believe he is in the category of people who need to be locked up in order to protect society. The time to consider whose fault it is comes, if at all, after there are different conditions of confinement available to people depending on how much they are in fact at fault. It doesn't appear to me that that is going to happen in my lifetime.