It's not unreasonable to try to rehabilitate criminals, nor is it wrong to want prisons to be humane.
It is *wrong* to release violent, repeat offenders, because statistically (and sadly) we know they are more than likely going to commit more crimes.
There are some essential lessons from Norway, which has a radical system of "luxurious prisons," that show much lower recidivism.
Hard to know how much of their success is due to the monoculture nature of their society, the amount they spend per prisoner (5x what we pay) or the size of their prisons (they believe in a lot of small jails, not a few giant ones).
Empathy for the victims requires that repeat violent offenders be incarcerated