I am starting a new thread as I do not want to derail Cujo's fine indictment of Catholicism
Criminals can be incarcerated to
1 protect society
2 change offender's future behaviour
3 deter other individuals from similar behaviour
4 satiate society's evolved emotional desire for revenge against offenders of the social norms and thus strengthen the social bonds of the community
None of these reasons requires that some ethereal spirit-like notion of 'free will' (some mysterious homunculus pilot in the skull) be demonstrated to exist as an objective reality rather than as an experienced illusion