Illustration by Gary Waters / Ikon Images Justice is a balancing act. When the state considers sending someone to prison, three broad questions are asked. Is this person a danger to the public? Is the crime they have committed serious enough that a custodial sentence is necessary to properly punish them and to act as a deterrent? And will prison provide an opportunity to address whatever issues led them to commit that crime in the first place and set their life on a different course? These objectives – protection, punishment and rehabilitation – will inevitably come into conflict with one another. The quandary is over where to place the emphasis. In the most difficult cases that balancing act is both especially vital to get right, and especially hazardous. I don’t know whether Judge Nicholas Rowland got the law right on 21 May when he ruled that three teenage boys convicted of multiple counts of rape against two teenage girls should not receive prison sentences.…