This attitude, when something horrific happens, to think reflexively "someone must pay" - even if that means a 9-year-old child is charged with first degree murder - is why 2.3 million people are incarcerated in this country.
PS. This doesn't mean nothing is done to address all of the problems we deal with right now by arresting and prosecuting people. It doesn't mean there is no accountability where someone has been harmed.
It just means the criminal legal system is not the fix we think it is, certainly not for a situation where 5 people have died in a fire that may have been lit by a 9-year-old boy.
