Helen wrote...

Yes. In his [Vila's] case, the system appeared to be working more or less

justly.

After all, he couldn't stand the idea of life without theivery even if it included safety and a woman who loved him. So he seems pretty much beyond redemption.

I agree. Vila is certainly an incorrigable thief. Pretty harmless compared to come off the criminals shipped off to Cygnus Alpha but I can see where the Federation would be at a loss what else to do with him.

Helen wrote...

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

Possible. Havant tells Blake he's disturbed when he's messing with his mind. If they defined criminal beahviour as evidence for mental illness they probably could 'treat' it without the persons consent or without a trial. We have compulsory treatment orders for mental illness even here and now.

Vila talks about being in custody pretty young though, 14 I think is mentioned. Is their PR good enough to pass off conditioning a child? I think maybe he was locked up in whatever the Federation equivalent of juvenile detention is and they didn't 'adjust' him until he was caught as an adult and when that didn't work locked him up again.

Or maybe the conditioning took place while he was actually serving a jail sentence.

Or maybe jail or mental adjustement are both options available to a judge and it depended on the exact circustances, temper of the judge and so forth.#

It's one of the things in B7 I'd liked to have heard more about.

Leia