A punishment can satisfy spectators without improving the conditions that produced the offense.

Punishment does two jobs and they are easily confused. One is to give onlookers the feeling that balance has been restored; the other is to change whatever produced the behaviour in the first place. The first is immediate and emotionally complete, the second is slow and unsatisfying, so systems drift towards the first and call it justice.

When a consequence is being handed down, in a workplace or a family or a country, ask what it is meant to accomplish and what would count as it having worked. If the honest answer is that people needed to see something happen, say so, and then ask separately what would actually reduce the chance of it recurring. Those are usually two different actions.