Victims usually want vengeance or revenge. They want to get even or "hurt them the way they hurt me".
Punishment is not justice. Punishment CAN BE justice, or can be an aspect of getting justice in some situations and with some crimes, but to say that you can't have justice without punishment is to miss the point of what "justice" really is.
Our legal system punishes intent, not action. Look at these three situations. Someone is driving down the road, reaches down to change the radio station, and runs over a pedestrian crossing in a crosswalk, killing them instantly. Someone is driving down the road, sees a pedestrian crossing, and runs then down on purpose because they don't like their skin color. Someone is driving down the road, has a seizure behind the wheel, and runs down a pedestrian because they lose control of their vehicle.
In all three situations, the same physical action takes place. A car is traveling down the road, fails to stop for a pedestrian in the sidewalk, and that failure kills the pedestrian. Lets reiterate that last bit...in all three, the victim is just as dead. And yet, the first driver will probably end up facing some kind of negligent homicide charge and will get a few years in prison, while the second driver will face first degree murder charges and the third driver probably won't face any charges at all. The difference is intent. The first driver didn't intend to kill anyone, but allowed his negligence and inattention to cause harm. The driver will be punished for that negligence. The second driver, on the other hand, is a cold blooded murderer. And the third? That driver had no control at all. Not only was there no intent, but there was nothing the driver could have done to stop it.
And that's why victims, survivors and their families don't get to pick punishments. It's not the action or the outcome that matters, but the intent of the accused. The family of the pedestrian killed by the seizing driver will be grieving just as much as the family of the pedestrian killed by the racist murderer, and will likely demand similar justice, but to give that to them would be the height of injustice because they are radically different situations.
When the severely mentally ill commit crimes, they tend to have more in common with the third example than the second. It's a tragedy for the victim, but the crime is often driven by the physical illness and not the conscious decisions or negligence of the perpetrator. Nobody chooses mental illness, and when the mentally ill commit crimes, the appropriate societal response is treatment and not incarceration.
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