The Rehabilitation Imperative

The axioms do not oppose rehabilitation. They require it.

Rehabilitation is the most efficient correction where it works: it converts a destabilising node into a stabilising one. Negative correction cost — the rehabilitated node now contributes. No higher level achieves this.

The hierarchy guarantees that rehabilitation is always attempted before escalation.

Restorative justice is Level 1+. Victim-offender mediation, community reparation, transformative justice — these aim to restore the node to the corridor and restore damaged coupling pathways. The derivation explicitly aligns with restorative justice movements.

These are not soft alternatives. They are the most efficient corrections at the levels where they work.

Pro-rehabilitation and pro-removal. Not a contradiction. Different points on the same efficiency curve. Rehabilitation is most efficient where it works. Removal is most efficient where nothing else works.

A civilisation that invests maximally in Level 1–2 — education, opportunity, community coherence — minimises the cases that reach Level 3–5. Prevention is structurally cheaper than correction.

The best justice system is the one that rarely needs to act.