Punishment

What is it to be a person?

I never really thought about having to answer a question like that and I was thrown for a loop when I realized that the question did not have a simple answer that I could just come up with on the spot. Physical aspects, emotional aspects, and rational aspects alongside a capacity of each, this is what makes you a person? It makes a lot more sense than what I was thinking. Having to follow legal laws and expect punishment if you do not?? Having to follow moral laws and expect punishment if you do not? Is that being a human?

What is it for 'a' & 'b' to be the same person? and the Leibhiz's Law of Identify

Now I honestly do not know if it would be great or terrifying to escape the wrath of jail just by getting a haircut or changing your way of thinking from ten minutes ago. Material continuity (hair and clothes) and mental continuity (same person if same consciousness) describe the things that make up who you are, but also leaves the question that if you change some of these things would you still be the same person. That is a good question indeed. I believe that you will still be the same person underneath all of those changes. It does not matter how many times you change your mental set, there will still be triggers that can bring you back to yourself. I don't people really change, some people are just better at hiding under all the layers that they have smothered their real selves with.

Who deserves to be punished?

Those who have committed a crime. As simple as that right? Wrong. Of course. You have to think of the rational capacity; the mental state the person was in when they committed the crime, and their understanding of fiction and reality.

What is the goal of punishment?

The main point of punishment is so people would not do the offending thing again or 'Rehabilitation' right? Well separation is a form of punishment that could also qualify as a main point of punishment. So to make this less confusing, "separating is the punishment and separation is the goal of the punishment". Keeping the prisoners separate from the rest of the world, the goal of this, will most likely teach them that they miss the outside and force them to do the right thing next time they are free. In realtiy, this does nothing but drive more people insane and used to being cooped up so when they are finally set free they commit more crimes to go back to the routine they knew. Separation is a way of keeping jails full.