I would say harsh and punitive measures to terrorize the inevitable human garbage are always better. Best would be straight up extermination, as was the norm in Europe for many centuries. Much of any population only obeys the laws of society if they are afraid of the consequences of breaking the law. Harsh, relentless punitiveness is an absolute necessity to protect the normal people. The fixation with the destructive myth that ‘all life is sacred’pushed by all religions is just psychological unilateral disarmament. The openly transgressive need to be terrorized and often killed as an example to their like. Also it provides some satisfaction to the normal people that obey the smelly little rules of society and endure the normal dogshit of human life that there is some sort of order in their universe. The opposite is the Hobbesian universe the so called compassionate people are creating.
I don't think anyone should have to live in an ISIS society or in Iran. Some government's cruelty to their citizens is just too horrific to be justified.