Forward-looking policies of protection, correction, and reasonable monetary restitution might often come to exactly the same consequence as "punishment" (ex. taking away your driver's license for repeated driving offenses). But the reasons and approaches and attitudes are different.
For reckless endangerment, for example, corrective action could include banishment from driving altogether until rehab is completed and verified. You limit yourself with backward-looking "punishment" whereas other options open up many more effective alternatives.
The state of your current prison system should wake you up to the reality that "punishment" is a useless exercise in futility that goes nowhere.
I would be glad to hear the alternatives you think would be more effective.
Do you think our current prison system is effective?
To an extent. Not as much as it could be.
Do you think it's forward-looking, self-sustaining, and is a "Correction Dept" as advertised?
Grandiose and political naming are meaningless to me.
For reckless endangerment, for example, corrective action could include banishment from driving altogether
That would be a punishment.