The author contends that all prison terms should be at least 15 years; the goal of incarceration should be to make the gap between ordinary, moral citizens and criminals even greater in practice than before. Prisons serve a retributive function more completely than corporal punishment by affecting the inmate's mind as well as his body. The Judeo-Christian view of retribution holds that the crime in question must be resolved through its punishment, and that the punishment must involve long-term suffering.