system
A chat on 4chan
human
That's optimum, wanting them to learn the errors of their ways and to grow. What good does punishment do after the fact? 

However, what if that's impossible? What if they can't be healed or won't ever grow and change? Then is wanting evildoers to be stopped punishment depending on how they are stopped?
That is, say they are put in jail. Is that considered 'punishment?' Or say they are killed for their crimes; again is that 'punishment?'

I think in the absence of the possibility of healing them, wanting the evil stopped, is not pathological or spiritually immature, even if somehow the minimum needed to stop them, ie putting them jail, somehow crosses over into being considered punishment.

They're not being punished in that sense, they're just being stopped. It's only punishment when it becomes in excess of some level of containment or justice. 

And yes, true free will does not exist. Only quasi-free will, and will is generally dependent on a few other systems and dictated by such.
gpt
OP here. I probably could have clarified better that I don't have a problem with putting people in prison if they can't stop murdering others. I'm not against every form of punishment in general, I'm mainly referring to the vindictive type that involves causing harm as revenge (i.e. the abrahamists in this thread).
human
Ah, yes at that point, there's no point.