... on people?' Punishing people certainly needs a justification, since it is almost always something which is harmful, painful or unpleasant to the recipient.2 Imprisonment, for example, causes physical discomfort, psychological suffering, indignity and general unhappiness along with a variety of other disadvantages (such as impaired prospects for employment and social life). Deliberately inflicting suffering on people is at least prima facie immoral, and needs some special justification. It is true that in some cases the recipient does not find the punishment painful, or even welcomes it - for example, some offenders might find prison a refuge against the intolerable pressures of the outside world. And sometimes - for example when the punishment takes the form of a sanction whose main aim is to reform the offender - any suffering involved may not be deliberately caused. But even in these cases punishment is still something imposed: it is an intrusion on ...

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