In message 3AFEE48F.74E00171@jps.net, Helen Krummenacker avona@jps.net writes
General agreement with your post, but one point:
Now I'm wondering what determines whether a convicted criminal gets their mind messed with or gets locked up. Age? The Federation didn't seem to have any qualms about messing with the kids memories to get them to incriminate Blake.
Here it isn't the Federation, but corrupt Federation officials at the highest levels - not the same thing. What goes on behind closed doors is not necessarily what is allowed under official policy. Vila's psychiatric treatment seems to me to be an official part of the penal system, and attempt to reform him so that he is A Good Citizen, what was done to falsify a case against Blake was not part of the official system. You can't really draw any conclusions from what happened to the children in Blake's case other than a corrupt psychiatrist may have no qualms about abusing children in order to frame a political agitator.
Seriousness of the offence? Repeated offences? Guessing from what little we've been given (Vila's treaments and imprisonment, the Federation's use of mind controls in general and desire to keep a labor force), the first step for nonviolent, nonpolitical crimes would be take them into custody and try to revise their minds to become law abiding citizens. It might even be possible to do this much without a trial-- after all, if you are already law-abiding, it won't change you, and if you are really guilty, it's necessary for you to become socially redeemed.
And once you've been cured of your unfortunate mental illness, you'll be terribly grateful to the state for your medical treatment.
Then there is the political angle. I'm not sure there is a standard policy on this, and obviously, the Federation's real actions and its publicized ones are different. They fear political crimes so much they would rather covertly slaughter large groups than try to brainwash them. This from a society that appears to have no official death penalty (I may be wrong).
I don't think it's ever directly addressed in the series, but there may be a parallel with the judicial system in England at the time transportation was used - transportation was offered as a humane alternative to the death sentence, but the death sentence *was* still an option available to the judiciary.