Yes it would be better to try to nip it in the bud where possible. Education is the key or build more prisons, may as well
do both whilst they're at it. As life gets tougher for them with little hope of a good economic environment it's unlikely to happen.
Giving the state the legal right to kill citizens is, on the whole, a bad move.
People who rape and murder babies usually meet sticky ends in prison anyway, without any assistance from the gub'mint.
I heard one guy that had done time in prison -he said the drug spice is now rife in prisons, so there are now drug free people going to jail and coming out as addicts.