Throw Them In Jail?

After working for nearly a decade as a law enforcement officer, I came away with some changed opinions of the criminal justice system.

I believe that prisons and jails should be reserved for violent criminals only; those who pose a physical danger to the general public. All other criminals should be dealt with by alternative methods.

Keeping a person incarcerated is expensive for the taxpayers, and cheaper, appropriate means of punishment do exist for non violent criminals. Such methods include electronic house arrest, wage garnishment, and the like.

With many money-related crimes, incarceration serves no real purpose for the victim. Punishments which involve the criminal making restitution make better sense.

With some “status offenses”, it serves no useful purpose whatsoever to jail the offender. I remember one time a man was jailed for driving an uninsured vehicle with a suspended driver’s license. His license had been suspended for simple points violations. When arrested, he was not breaking any other traffic laws. For most traffic offenses, an officer may use his own discretion as to whether to jail the offender or simply write a ticket. For the two offenses above, however, the officer was mandated by state law to take the offender into custody.

The man had a pregnant wife close to giving birth. She was having a difficult pregnancy and was unable to work, with him the sole wage earner in the family. The county I live in has no public transportation to speak of, so he did what he had to do to support his family.

When he went to trial, he told the judge about his situation. He didn’t attempt to evade punishment entirely, freely admitting his guilt. He asked if he could do weekend time in the jail, so that he could continue to work and support his wife and soon-to-be child. The judge would have none of it, and sentenced him to 90 straight days in jail, despite the fact he had no criminal record, other than these traffic offenses.

After being taken to jail, the man called his employer to tell him what had happened. The employer immediately fired him.

What was the justice in this? Not only was this man punished for what was essentially a status offense with a punishment that far exceeded the crime, his wife was punished as well.

Thoughts?