damn, stupid slow connection.
I meant the shooting thing about if she was a bad seed....
In like your case where you never did anything wrong again....well, they didn't have a crystal ball to know that you wouldn't.
Frankly, looking at those 5 or 8 years in the big picture of your entire life span, I really don't see the harm in the lesson lasting that long.
If the kids a bad seed, you shoot them,
If the kid, like you, learned their lesson, that time reinforces it, and gives you a story to tell you kids about how you had to break up rocks on a rock pile for 5 years over an infraction. The 5 years of discipline didn't hurt you one bit. (ok, you know I'm kidding about the rock pile)
If you were the type who would have gone out and done wrong again, and didn't because of the punishment, well then, that's good.
It's not going to hurt, and it could very well help.
All this can be done in a non emotionally harmful way, but again, you make your bed, you lie in it. Even if it was a one time event, that correction time will be character building.
