There is a near unending supply of people that can be coerced or incentivized into car theft. There is, however, not a near unending supply of police, judicial and corrective resources. We really do need to make choices, and we should make the most effective ones.

You can attack the street level but it won't make a dent in the problem, you will not be able to dissinsentivize theft with abstract ideas of future punishment for people who have concrete current problems of gang coercion or poverty.

So I suppose if you are interested in simply punishing a never-ending lineup of street level actors at ever growing expense to the country then sure, we can "deal with car thieves".