Crime Should Pay

Posted by TheBisch
June 1, 2005

By now, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know Jennifer Wilbanks, the runaway bride. Yesterday, it was announced that she would be repaying $13,000 to the city of Duluth for the cost of her search. While this amount isn’t nearly enough to cover the costs, it definitely brings up a good point.

Over the Memorial Day weekend, the Buckhead district of Atlanta has had two separate “Crane Jumpers”, the first creating a 56 hour standoff, which resulted in lots of overtime and man hours wasted waiting for this guy to come down so he could be extradited to Florida for a murder charge. The second took place just over 24 hours after the first guy came down off the crane. However, this “standoff’ didn’t last as long.

In both cases, these guys are now feeding off the taxpayers dollars. After wasting taxpayer dollars in their standoffs, these guys are getting a free ride. Now, I realize prison isn’t an ideal location for a vacation, but it’s better than sleeping on the streets: You get three hots and a cot…. and a TV, and a free exercise area, and free internet access… hell prison’s almost like a resort hotel these days.

I think to help “fund” these resort prisons, criminals should be made to reimburse the departments that are involved in their capture. These fees should be set up to where bankruptcies can’t make them go away, and that it follows you everywhere you go… garnishing your wages.

Maybe by making criminals financially liable for their actions instead of simply imprisoning them, people would think twice about before doing stupid stunts like the crane jumpers. I’m think the Wilbanks deal is a good start.

On the Soapbox

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Comments

hmmm
good point
but I have to say that being in prison is probally not at all like what we make it out to be

Comment by Master Foley on Wednesday, 6/1/2005 @ 9:39 am

Good idea. How about taking it a step further?

I’ve long thought it was ridiculous to lock people up for non-violent crimes that cost less than the punishment.

For instance, why lock a woman up that embezzled $10,000, at a cost to the state of $60,000 per year, not including the cost of the trial?

A better solution would be garnishment and community service. There are so many jobs that people can do. Pick up trash. Sort trash. Animal shelters, etc.

Comment by Enerd on Wednesday, 6/1/2005 @ 10:41 am

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