"The thing is, people can change."

So, then, you don't believe in life imprisonment either? If your notions of crime and punishment are based on the fact that a person can change, then either you don't punish, or you live with the fact that you now have a gaggle of "changed" men unfairly and unnecessarily in prison.

And if they're reformed and you let them out -- who gets to decide who're reformed. And who pays the pentalty for any resultant recitivism?