Chip them or slap a bracelet on them, and send them out to work. Make them earn enough money to pay appropriate restitution, at which point the tracking device would be removed. In this way, the punishment would be commensurate with the crime – you are not free until you have paid back the value of what you stole. The restitution would go through some intermediate agent, whose fee would be paid by the offender, and then into the pocket (or bank account) of the victim.
It makes sense – putting a thief in jail does nothing for the victims. It has a huge cost to society, and apparently not enough deterrent to actually stop crime. Criminals count on not getting caught, and if they do get caught, most sentences are so short that jail is no deterrent, either. And why are sentences so short? Because our prisons are so overloaded that they turn them over as fast as possible.
Chipping would allow the justice system to track convicts until they have completed their restitution. This would have the advantage of being able to find them when they try to skip; and more importantly, it’s pretty difficult to break into a house when some government gent knows exactly where you are, and when you are there. Or to hijack a car, hold up a bank, mug Joe Schmoe, or break into that soda machine.
For cyber criminals and embezzlers, maybe the chip could record keystrokes and either transmit them to some remote location, or store enough to be able to download at some set interval.
We’l discuss drug “crimes” another time, and so that leaves the prisons for crimes against people. Violent offenders. There are possible ways to deal with some of them that don’t involve prison, but violent offenders are the only people who ought to be incarcerated. And even some of the violent offenders would be better rehabilitated by paying restitution or doing some sort of service work to atone for lesser crimes.
Their victims might also be better served, as well. If a thug assaults you, you and/or your insurance company bear the costs of your medical treatment, possible counseling, and time off work. It seems only right that the perpetrator bear those costs. That would be justice.
The costs are just too high for our society to continue to not only pay the costs of the violent act, but then to lock up, feed, clothe, guard, cover health, dental and education costs for people who commit crimes against property and some minor crimes against persons.
We can’t afford it, and most importantly, it’s not working. Our prisons are full. The prison industry is huge, and the biggest consumer of our “Health and Human Services” dollars.
That’s right, most of those “welfare” dollars are actually prison dollars. We keep cutting welfare programs to pay ever-increasing prison costs.
What a waste. What a shame.
