Seems like the problem in the US is there are pockets of society which have multi generational issues where the parents don’t know how to teach their kids to be successful since their lives have been a failure too. As well as an environment that normalises crime.
It seems extremely difficult to break this cycle without actually removing kids from their parents/friend groups.
Another complicating factor could be that the US has a more diverse population. Tribalism is hard to overcome, especially with a messy history of racism and oppression.
That is a really simple take on law and human behavior.
Are we really going to ignore all of our modern understanding of psychology to say "criminal bad, criminal deserve jail"?
Is the problem really that too few people are in prison?