Can mercy be institutionalised?

This was a question which came up in a recent discussion with a friend about the criminal justice system and the relative merits of imprisonment and capital punishment. I have recently had several conversations on similar themes. The nature and purpose of punishment has been much debated over the past 200 years, with retribution, deterrence and rehabilitation, amongst other things, each being proposed either as a purpose amongst others or as the primary purpose of punishment. This is an interesting discussion where I don't have definite answers as yet. Here is a fascinating article debating such issues in response to George Ryan, Governor of Illinois, commuting the sentences of all death row inmates:

Stephen P. Garvey - 'Is it Wrong to Commute Death Row? Retribution, Atonement and Mercy'

How we understand justice, punishment and mercy in general underlies some of the current debate in the Christian world about such matters as what happened when Jesus died on the cross and the nature of hell. Here we must allow the biblical data to guide us rather than emotional reactions conditioned by trends in our society and culture. In relation to the criminal justice system, we need to discuss these things with compassion, since for many these questions are not academic but of direct personal relevance. In relation to God's mercy and God's justice, these questions are of immediate and immense personal significance for each one of us, since we are all in desperate need of God's mercy, but God's character is such that he can only show us mercy if in doing so he satisfies his own justice. It is at the cross that God's justice is satisfied so that God's mercy can be freely offered to all who come with the open hands of faith. In the words of the Apostle Paul:

"God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished — he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus."
(Romans 3:25-26)