Idaho Mountain Express: Crime pays

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Crime pays

Parents, we tell our kids, "Crime doesn't pay," but from my recent experience, we need to rethink this. I'm not talking about Wall Street stealing millions; I'm talking theft in the night, felony theft.

After a punk needs to get his broken racecar to Portland, Ore., for repairs, he steals my trailer, conservative value, $2,000. The prosecutor lets him plea the felony to misdemeanor but asks for 90 days in jail to send a message and stress that this was a felony crime.

Maximum sentence for petty theft is 180 days. Things are not good for convicted felons, so he's getting a big break; I'm good with this.

The judge sentences the defendant to 14 days, equal to 336 hours of incarceration. After doing the math, that comes out to $5.95 per hour relative to the value of the trailer that he tried to keep, which is very close to the hourly take-home wage of a person earning minimum wage.

The summation of this lesson is that while the defendant is paying his debt to society, he will be paying back to society at a rate equivalent to minimum wage while he sleeps, eats, reads or watches TV.

Next time you see Judge Elgee, tell him that "you got the economics lesson" on how the possibility of punishment is a deterrent to felony theft, and now having learned the cost of doing one's time, in the off chance that you get caught—"Do the Crime—it pays pretty good."

JIM MIZER

Hailey

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