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I just want to point out that criminologists differentiate between general deterrence (punish one crook, the rest of the population is afraid to steal) and specific deterrence (punish one crook, he or she becomes afraid to steal again).
I believe the consensus is that specific deterrence works when people believe they are likely to be caught and general deterrence only "works" in that it prevents crimes for a short period of time.
For example, death penalty studies show that murders do decrease after an execution, but they only do so for a few weeks. After that, they tend to increase in rate.
My order: Specific deterrence, Containment of those most likely to recidivate (this means releasing one-time murderers and non-violent sex-offenders to extremely strict home monitoring; drug users and property criminals (usually linked to drug abuse) to heavily monitored drug programs), containment of the 6-8% of rest in prison (only 6-8% of criminals comprise nearly all of the crime and are repeat, violent offenders), our containment centers ought to focus on Rehabilitation, and no retribution in terms of punishment for the sake of punishment (this includes making prisons "worse" to make sure people don't want to come back--FYI, most don't already).
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