“If rehabilitation is the goal, does someone like Potter learn her lesson that the accidental taking of life already hasn’t?”
That is a good question. Is the purpose of the prison system to punish, rehabilitate or somewhere in-between?
If to rehabilitate, putting her in prison for being incompetent at her job is pointless.
If to punish, putting her in prison for removing a thug from society makes no sense.
For those who say, “well, if I had done that,” it is not your job to confront and detain these criminals so, yeah, you would be treated differently.
If they were for rehabilitation, they would be called “Rehabilitation Centers” instead of Prisons. Prisons are for executing the sentences of Judges/Jurys according to enacted LAW. The author can whine and excuse and misdirect all he wants with other situations but the law was pretty clear here...