The question is, what alternatives are there? Consider, for example, the proposal to replace moral desert with something like institutional desert, i.e., desert based on what the institution prescribes without appeal to a prior notion of moral desert. According to this proposal, a wrongdoer cannot reasonably complain that institutions that threaten punishment if she does wrong, and then follow through on the threat if she is duly convicted of wrongdoing, treat her unjustly (Quinn 1985; Hill 1999; Finkelstein 2004; Bedau & Kelly 2010 [2019: §4]). Surely there is utility in having such insti...