This is not a question of about parroted nonsense and cultural norms. I mean what end product do they produce that justifies their existence in the first place.
I’m physically disabled and have been living in a prison like situation for nearly 11 years. How does my situation balance into the ethics of prisons? I’m on a path to homelessness and a premature death due to institutionalized neglect and abuse from US institutions. Criminals are housed and fed in exchange for similar isolation, abuse, danger, insurmountable debt, and a largely unemployable and destitute future. These seem to conflict in ethics.
Simplest way to put it is that prisons exist because some people simply cannot be allowed to live in “normal” society. Unfortunately, people have decided that this fate is no longer reserved for the worst of the worst/those that pose imminent danger, but now include “moral” offenses.
This is one of those topics where there is no “good” solution - only “less evil” options. And until humans as a species no longer have the various hold-over traits from our time before “civilization”, we’ll have to accept that we have to collectively make shitty choices.