mentsch,
I am interested to know where the Gemara discusses jail.
It goes without saying that the society needs to be protected from dangerous people, but it doesn’t give anyone the right to lock someone up for life in a tiny cell, and treat them like subhumans. Have you ever seen how they treat people on death row? It can take 20 years until the death sentence is carried out. You might argue that giving them an extra 20 years to live is a chesed, it’s made to exhaust all legal options. True, but why do the accused need to be abused in every single way during those 20 years? This is not justice, this is cruelty, this is a sin even according to Noahide laws.
The justice system in USA is a huge failure, because it’s a man made system. Moshe Margaretten has tried to change things, he was successful B”H, but it’s only a drop in the ocean.
Incarceration is the most cruel man made invention. It has no place in our Torah.
Menu