Yuyutsu,
Anyone who deliberately & knowingly takes or destroys anothers property must be put to the task of compensation & yes if their funds are insufficient the State should pay up or at the least give an equivalent value tax break. It's simply not good enough for some limp-wristed Magistrates to just wave away the victim's right to protect himself & deny him compensation as well. That's what's happening now & it must change. We could stop waffling on about Abbott lying etc. when we should instead bombard him with this proposal. We need legislation & we need it soon. It shouldn't be too hard to get past Silly Billy.
I say let's push the idea.

Yuyutsu,
You fail to understand the true import of the criminal justice system as we have today in the western democracies.
Perhaps a clue would be the number of unions that are involved in the criminal justice system.
First thing of the economic and physical chaos that would result from the complete removal of crime and criminals from our system.
Right from the base juvenile levels through to the adult platforms of crime and criminal process there are hundreds of thousands of jobs involved that would be lost and the resulting unemployment would bring down our society.
There are whole cities that depend on crime through the physical location of prison systems and police training facilities.
There court systems and legal networks, university research programs and rehabilitation structures, education and training programs, social workers, support workers, probation and parole services, police, insurance investigators and a whole raft of akin workers that would all be out of a job if crime closed down.
Then on the other side of the coin is the fact that the human race is capable of producing so very aggressive, violent and dangerous individuals that will engage in abstract behavior regardless of the consequences.
You can kill them, starve them or reduce their protein intake but you will not stop them.
The criminal justice system is a true perpetual motion that keeps on replicating itself and in doing so provides a form of economic, social and community self sustenance.

'evening all...

An interesting concept imposing a strict diet on everybody in gaol. However, apart from the normal catering personnel in gaols who take regular dietary advice from the medical staff, I think it would be quite difficult to impose a particular dietary regimen on those who would and could resist it.

It's my understanding prisoners are permitted to partake in weekly 'buy ups' from the gaol canteens which involves purchase of items like tobacco, toiletry products as well as all manner of confectionary and soft drinks eg coca cola and similar. Furthermore, these buy ups involve quantities that would easily sustain an inmate with sufficient calories to subsist entirely without partaking in any of the normal gaol food, thus negating any attempts to closely regulate their diets.

Concerning the provision of fitness apparatus in gaols ? It's held by prison medical staff that it's far better and safer for everyone concerned, when inmates can 'burn up' their aggression, by using the weights and associated equipment, rather than going around the gaol acting aggressively and looking for trouble.

In fact back in the seventies and eighties at Parramatta Gaol (a maximum security gaol designed to house 'heavy' criminals), regular boxing was allowed every weekend. Consequently, outside fighters were allowed access to the institution for the purpose of training and later fighting inmates under proper ring rules and conditions ? One such notable, was Tony Mundine, father of Anthony Mundine, a current title holder.

This practice would never have got off the ground, without the strong support and backing of medical staff, of the benefits of fitness for men locked up for protracted periods of time. Without such measures, there'd be more serious assaults, homosexual rapes, murder and stabbings, due to the enervated tension and listlessness of caged men without any ability to 'let off steam' !

Accordingly, I offer this purely as my opinion only.

'burn up' their aggression
o sung wu,
How about burning up aggression via physical labour such as making cement blocks for breakwater or culverts or other physically demanding activities. From the sales of these things victims can be compensated.

Hi there INDIVIDUAL...

A very good point - the old penal servitude aka 'genuine hard labour' ! Sounds good my friend, but do you have any idea how many 'rights' these crims have in gaol these days ? With the 'Prisoner's Action' group and other 'do gooder's constantly monitoring what happens in 'boob', you'd be absolutely amazed ?

It's all they can do, just to keep 'em locked-up, without making; 'little ones out of big ones' (breaking rocks). The public perception of what gaol entails, is quite erroneous. The best the community can hope for is to keep most of these buggers locked up safely, is all.

Meaningless platitudes like; reformation or rehabilitation, the concept of punishment, 'corrective behaviour modification' et al, are mere words emanating from some minor academic whilst languishing at his little desk in some dusty office, is an underfunded, long forgotten university somewhere ? Mate it's all just bulldust and nothing more !

I tried without success to get comparative crime statistics between Western countries, China and Saudi Arabia. I am curious to know how many people in Saudi commit theft, given the consequences. And the death penalty in China is usually carried out within days of sentencing... does that serve as a better deterrent than our system of endless appeals. I have a gut feeling western repeat offenders know they are more likely to get a slap on the wrist than to serve serious time. No deterrent at all.