The interesting thing about the efficiency of this punishment is that only the criminal ever has to come to terms with it. Traditional incarceration gives friends and family a chance to adjust as well (for better or worse).
it also punishes the innocent… and their friends and family like you describe
The best part of the episode:
When we were growing up, they used to tell us… humanity had evolved, that mankind had outgrown hate and rage. But when it came down to it, when I had the chance to show, that no matter what anybody did to me, that I was still an evolved human being… I failed. I repaid kindness with blood. I was no better than an animal."
"No. No, no, no. An animal would’ve killed Ee’Char and never had a second thought, never shed a tear… But not you. You hate yourself.You hate yourself so much you think you deserve to die. The Argrathi did everything they could to strip you of your humanity and in the end, for one brief moment they succeeded. But you can’t let that brief moment define your entire life. If you do, if you pull that trigger… then the Argrathi will have won. They will have destroyed a good man. You cannot let that happen, my friend.
This makes me think that phasers are much less prone to accidents than guns
I know most people hate Keiko - I’m not one of them. And I really appreciate that here we have one of the few examples in Star Trek main casts of a two-parent family, working through their troubles as they can.
10 minutes until MIRROR UNIVERSE TIME! 
I liked her here. A rare case to be sure.
I’m so ticked that TNG never ventured into the Mirror Universe. Evil Picard would have been epic. 
The facial hair alone!