Originally Posted By BookHound
I understand your point. I could see if the guy was a deadbeat dad not paying his child support, leaving him out of the pokey is best. Otherwise, as you point out, he has no way of paying the money.
But a thief? The ONLY thing the arabs do right is hand out SEVERE punishment for crimes. Now I'm not saying cut the guy's hand off, but I think if the MINIMUM punishment for ANY theft was a couple years in jail, I think there would be a lot less theft. Oh, and my definition of "jail" is not sitting around in some cell smoking cigarettes watching HBO. I think all jail time should include some hard labor. Make them work IN JAIL to earn money to pay off the debt!
If someone stole $10K cash from me, I'd rather see them rot in a cell for YEARS instead of pay me back. Asking a thief to pay someone back is like telling him "go steal something else to payoff this guy that busted ya."
Just my opinion. I'd love to hear other thoughts.
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Actually, my thought is that jail is quite effective, PARTICULARLY in child support cases. It is amazing how fast a jobless guy in rags can produce 13k when a judge says "you'll sit there until you come up with the cash" I truly am shocked at the sums of money that some people can produce when it comes to staying in jail until they produce it.
If you let the guy out to go find a job on his own, it's just as likely he'll sell drugs or stolen property to get the money as he will get an honest job, imo. Hell, more likely than either of those, he may just skip...seeya!
Lastly, I assume you're talking about prison...most jails I have seen don't even have tv...most inmates in jail, as opposed to prison will be there for short periods...once they have a year or more to serve they, generally speaking, go to the state DOC (prison). This may vary by jurisdiction of course.
Jails often tend to have fewer resources and less ability to house large numbers of prisoners (so prisoners may wait in a holding tank 5 and 6 to a room for a few days before even seeing a bed, much less a tv). Most prisoners (in prison) DO have to work but that money goes back to the state to help keep the prisons open, not to victims. Our county jail employs prisoners for pennies washing County squad cars and painting curbs and picking up trash but once again, the benefit all accrues to the county, not the victims.
The court can and should order restitution in addition to any other punishment...of course, the problem is enforcing that restitution when the guy skips out. State's attorneys and Deputies in this area are often too busy for what they consider to be less important work