I'm a fervent supporter of Universal Basic Income and that very threat is why I want it Universal. Let's fix our societies' failings without the threat of death, hunger, and forced exposure to the elements.
In the case of vandalism, I agree completely removing their basic income would be too much, just fining them like we already do is enough. For things that would land you in prison though, forcing you to have to work like you already have to under the current system seems less cruel than the alternative. Note that under UBI there's going to be a surplus of job opportunities that no one will want to do like cleaning toilets and such. So it's less a threat of death and hunger, and more a threat of having to resort to shitty jobs.
>under UBI there's going to be a surplus of job opportunities
I'm not so sure of this. If those jobs really need doing, then the pay will just go up until they become attractive. There won't be open positions just hanging around indefinitely, in case people decide they want a job.
I'm wary of making removal of basic income a punishment for anything - it seems like a moral hazard. From my point of view, the entire point of basic income is that abandoning people to their own devices, possibly to starve, just isn't the way a well-to-do first world country should be treating people. That argument doesn't change regardless of what crimes you've committed - that's why most first world countries no longer have the death penalty and regard it as barbaric.
Furthermore, if basic income becomes viewed as a revocable privilege instead of a right, there will be great pressure to get more and more "undeserving" people off it, ostensibly for their own good but really just to save money. We already see this behaviour in the way the recent UK government has been treating the people under its draconian "Universal Credit" system - since its introduction, "unemployment" (as measured by claimants) has plummeted, but the number of people on the street has skyrocketed. Clearly people in bad situations are being booted out of the system, by hook or by crook.
You really don't want this attitude in your social safety net.
