Justice Should Not Be in the Business of Harm

There is a part of the human heart that understands revenge.

When someone harms another person, something primal rises up in us. A sense of balance. Of cosmic bookkeeping. You hurt someone, therefore you should hurt. Karma. Eye for an eye. Emotional symmetry. I understand that instinct.

But here is the problem: when we hand that instinct to a massive, flawed, government bureaucracy and authorize it to operationalize suffering, it does not stay proportional. It metastasizes.

It becomes wrongful convictions. It becomes excessive sentences. It becomes dehumanization. It becomes indifference to error. It becomes innocent people buried inside concrete systems.

The justice system, as currently structured, is built around punishment and retribution. But human beings are imperfect. Systems built and run by imperfect human beings will also be imperfect. As long as fallible humans are the arbiters of punishment, “justice” will never be perfectly just.

So we have to ask a harder question: If punishment is not the highest aim, what should the justice system be trying to do?

A Different North Star

In my view, the government should have one simple mission statement:

Reduce human suffering and enhance human thriving. Period.

If an activity does not meaningfully contribute to those goals, the government should not be doing it. Especially not with taxpayer dollars. Especially not with institutions that have repeatedly proven themselves inefficient, opaque, and resistant to real oversight.

The justice system should not exist to inflict pain. It should exist to make society safer and more whole.

That means:

• If someone is truly dangerous and cannot safely live among others, then confine them humanely. Protect society.

• If someone can be rehabilitated, then invest in rehabilitation so they return stronger, not more damaged.

• If harm has occurred, prioritize resolving and repairing harm, not compounding it.

• Learn why crimes (harm) occur, and do more to prevent them rather than simply punishing those behaviors.

  
  

You do not rehabilitate human beings by treating them like animals. You do not reduce violence by normalizing institutional cruelty.

Trauma does not cure trauma.

Why Crime Happens

If we genuinely want less crime, we must ask why crime occurs in the first place. Often, the causes fall into two broad categories.

First, the human condition itself. To have a body is to need food, safety, belonging. It is to be vulnerable to addiction, mental illness, desperation, disease, impulse, fear. Not every crime is purely malicious intent. Many are expressions of untreated pain or unmet need.

Second, systemic failure. Crime also reflects environments where opportunity is scarce, education is inadequate, mental health services are insufficient, economic pathways are blocked, and social support is fragile. In other words, where society has not created the conditions for human thriving.

When the government fails to build structures that support human flourishing, and then turns around and punishes people for flailing within those broken structures, something is deeply misaligned.

Yes, citizens may do wrong. Yes, harm may occur. Yes, accountability matters.

But accountability does not equal vengeance.

And government does not get moral permission to harm simply because a citizen has.

The Role of a Just System

A just system should aim to:

• Prevent harm

• Protect society

• Repair damage

• Address root causes

• Support rehabilitation

• Alleviate suffering wherever possible

  
  

It should not be in the business of humiliation, excess punishment, or bureaucratic indifference.

The government should not mirror the worst impulses of human nature. It should embody our highest ones.

Right now, too often, it does the opposite. And that demands redesign...not because people never do wrong, but because the state must hold itself to a higher standard than the individuals it governs.

Justice should not be about making imperfect humans suffer.

It should be about building a society where fewer humans feel driven to harm in the first place.