Facebook Test Post

I have added an application to my facebook page to update my profile with blogs... This is a test post for that...

Sentencing

Yesterday on the news was the story of Rob Blagojevich, the disgraced governor of Illinois who has been arrested for trying to sell Barack Obama's senate seat. If he is convicted, he could serve as much as 50 years. It seems doubtful that he will serve that much, but why should we lock him up at all?!?

The regular knee-jerk reaction to anybody committing a crime is to "lock 'em up." That has become our definition of punishment. While going to prison is DEFINITELY punishment, it does not seem appropriate to all crimes. In addition, putting everyone in prison has caused the US to have the largest prison population in the world, with 700,000 more people in prison than China (a country with a population 4X greater than the US). According to the federal government, it costs approximately $22,650 per inmate per year. With a total prison population (in 2006) of 2,258,983, that gives us a total cost of approximately $51,165,964,950 PER YEAR!!! (That's over 51 BILLION DOLLARS!!!)

I'm not saying that we should let everyone roam free, but I do think there are a few changes we can make...

1) Mandatory Sentencing. The US Government Sentencing Commission recommends policies to congress on mandatory sentences for certain crimes. Most of these sentences are related to drug charges as part of the War on Drugs. These guidelines often tie judges hands in giving lighter sentences due to mitigating factors. I think it would make far more sense to allow judges to do their jobs and sentence criminal based on the facts of that individual case (using precedent as a guide) instead of blanket rules handed down from congress.

2) Drugs. This is closely related to mandatory sentencing. Why does it makes sense for a guy with a small amount of drugs (a user) to serve prison time? How does putting a whole bunch of druggies together help the situation? It seems that you're just getting drug dealers and users together to network. When they get out, they now have more, easier ways to get drugs. Why not make the punishment fines for very small amounts (recreational users), and counseling for heavier users?

3) White Collar Crimes. Getting back to Blagojevich. This is a guy who wanted to abuse his power for financial gain. It seems a better punishment for this crime would be to fine him and not allow him to hold public office or work in public service, either for a period of time or for life. Instead of this costing tax-payers thousands and thousands of dollars, the government would get money from him and he would lose what he most valued. We need to start looking at more creative punishments that better fit the crime.

All in all, the point I'm trying to make here is this: Let's find a way to punish people in a way that costs the government (and therefore the taxpayer) less money and punishes people in more appropriate ways.