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However, the people who care the most about "justice" from an American standpoint tend to see "crime" as a synonym for "sin" and know that the way "sin" is dealt with is through "repentance" and "punishment."
And there it is...The word penitentiary comes from "a place to do penance". That is, sit there and pray for forgiveness. As intemperance is a sin, we must incarcerate those who are intemperant so that they might ask for forgiveness. Talk about separation of Church and State! I'm always curious why its the atheists, who statistically have among the lowest crime rates of any "religious" (for lack of a better word) demographic, who are demonized. The believers cause the crime, because they know they can be forgiven by a third party.