Excellent points.
Many times in modern societies we confuse the appearance of leniency with its reality. As we can all see by looking around us, leniency to the criminal is aggression towards the non-criminal.
This holds true even with punishment. Take the young American who got six lashes or something like that in Singapore. So he spent a few days in hospital and then was released. And I bet he never reoffended! At least not in Singapore!
In America for a similar offense he might have gotten some months in a prison, been raped or otherwise abused, etc. But since we don’t see the horrors a young guy in prison might be subjected to, we can pretend we as a society aren’t responsible for them.
I know which I would choose, given a choice.
.........if I had my choice a couple million prisoners in the US would be given lashes ranging from 6 to 7,000 and let go! The guys getting 7,000 would NEVER re-offend! Then all the death rows could be combined into one at Ft. Leavenworth due to it’s centrality. Billions and Billions would be saved!
Actually, someday, in one of the former United States of America, you might see some version of this kind of “real” punishment when “society” finally quits listening to liberals and takes swift justice to the criminal!
Bottom line: swift pain works! Best deterrent there is!