I have been met with so many blank stares when explaining this concept to Americans, "but they killed children!" Sure, if it's revenge you want then help them understand and regret their actions; death is the easy way out.
I would defer to the justice system that is renowned for facilitating a country with not only the lowest crime rate in the world, but also the lowest recidivism rate. If playstation is part of the treatment, then so be it.
What does your solution bring to the plate, apart from crime universities that produce hardened criminals?
If you want my solution, here's roughly what I would do:
Victimless crime: basically no penalty for this, most of it should be eliminated as crime. Maybe a small fine or education at the worst.
Non-violent crime: Goal is restitution. Income or benefits are deducted to make the victim whole, probably with punitive damages to the victim as well. Basically no jail except in willful attempt to avoid restitution to victim, and perhaps not even then.
Violent crime: Most cases rehabilitation, plus restitution to victims. Prison is close to Norway type system for violence not resulting in dismemberment/death/permanent brain damage.
First instance of brutal violent crime to one victim: Norway type rehabilitation.
Repeated rape, repeated murder conviction, repeated molestation of children, repeated brutal life-disabling violence: Trial, exhaustive appeals, bullet to the head.
Mass murder of innocents: Trial, exhaustive appeals, then a bullet to the head.
It's hard to think of any way in which that statistic is actually meaningful. I don't think anybody would reasonably argue based on a single event that the average Norwegian is more at risk of death via mass shooting compared to the average American, for a start. When you have only one data point pretty much any statistical comparison seems fairly pointless.
And yet if you took any significant time period that doesn't include the Breivik shooting Norway's results are just fine. I'd even think if you looked at the last 50 or 75 years (assuming we have good enough data) they'd be better than the US's. And certainly if you included Norway along with other countries with similar policies on dealing with violent criminals.
Which I don't even really think necessarily proves anything much on its own, but at least it's a meaningful data point.
