At 06:25 PM Monday 8/8/2005, Warren Ockrassa wrote:
On Aug 8, 2005, at 3:35 PM, Ronn!Blankenship wrote:
Whitney said he frequently orders jail time on weekends so defendants don't
lose their jobs and go on public assistance.
Seems to me this guy *needs* to lose his job
OTOH, he has a point: do you think Joe and Jane Public want people who
have committed crimes or their families to end up on the public dole?
That's precisely what happens when they go to prison. The public is paying
for their room and board, their entertainment, and often for their
education as well.
It seems to me that if one breaks laws, and one is caught and fairly
convicted, one should expect to be punished. This includes not being able
to go on vacation, and possibly losing one's livelihood.
Now once one has served one's time I think it's reasonable to expect to be
employed again, but working out a *punishment schedule* around the
convenience of the *convict's life* is outrageous.
[Speaking in general, now, not just about this specific case.]
Okay, so we send daddy to jail for committing a crime, and put him up at
the taxpayers' expense. Then mommy and the kids, who are presumably
innocent of any crime, go on welfare, because they no longer have a
paycheck coming in because daddy is in jail and mommy has no marketable
skills and has several young kids at home. When daddy finally gets out, he
can't get a job because no one wants to hire an ex-con. And even if mommy
(after the kids are in school) or daddy can eventually get a minimum-wage
job, it's not enough to live on, particularly when there are day-care
expenses for the kids when they are not in school and there is no parent at
home because they are working. So we end up with the whole family on the
public dole for the foreseeable future. How do you suggest that we (1)
punish the guilty appropriately and (2) keep the innocent members of the
criminal's family from paying the price and/or ending up on welfare?
-- Ronn! :)
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