Memes of Production

I don’t think that makes these individuals permanently dangers to society. I believe that treatment is always possible.

Maybe in theory, eventually. But there are definitely conditions that we don't yet know how to treat or cure, and which may never be treatable or curable without developing some sci-fi tech to literally rewrite people's minds ... and then that's a whole new horror story in the wrong hands.

Then there's the trust issue. Say you've got a psychopathic serial killer or a repeat child rapist who's been in treatment for a few years and seems to be cured. How can we trust them to actually be cured, and not just be pretending to be cured so they'll be released where they can do it again? Or, perhaps worse, they think they're cured, but when the opportunity and temptation presents itself after release, they relapse...

Without some very sci-fi mental health treatments, I'm pretty sure there are some individuals that you can never rehabilitate well enough to release, and the best you can do is to separate them from society to remove their opportunity to hurt anyone else.

(But I do agree -- whether or not there's any hope of mental health treatment 'fixing' them -- that prisons-as-punishment should not be the goal at all, ever. It should be for treatment and rehabilitation ... or if those aren't possible, then containment and protection. In any case, these people should be treated as nicely as possible and given pretty much anything they want ... except an opportunity to hurt others.)