“Stupidity cannot be cured with money money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can't help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.”

A fun little quote, of course that's merely discussing that nature tends to kill off the dumb.

It varies, I'm not a fan of prisons but I am a fan in confining dangerous people while they're dangerous and if you keep them there long enough they're too old to be much of a threat. Keep in mind that we can and usually do release people early from prison if it is felt they are reasonably reformed, which is at it should be though our method of determining when and the how involved is often disappointing.

My issue with Heinlein in the corporal punishment sense is I don't really see an advantage to hitting people, and a beating isn't exactly a scientific process. I do generally tend to agree with the notion that if you need to lock someone up for 30 years there's something flawed in your approach, but I've always viewed our method of long term imprisonment rather lacking, though alternatives are also rather lacking. With time we'll be able to tailor these things to the individual better.