Non-Violent Offenders and Incarceration

Regular readers are aware that my wife and I are currently having to deal with both identity fraud and an unrelated dispute over a very large credit charge, both at the same time.

And that got me to thinking… one of the arguments you often hear to support the charge that the US incarcerates too many people is the high proportion of people in prison who are non-violent offenders. Now, I can understand that sentiment when it comes to pot-smokers or prostitutes or the like. But as to perpetrators of fraud… well, given the experience we’re going through right now, I’d rather have gotten beaten up the street and gotten a broken arm or leg than go through this. It would have caused much less aggravation and misery. And there are only so many people that a thug can beat up on a given day, whereas those who perpetrate frauds can cause all sorts of misery to a lot more people.

Nobody will ever give us back the time we lost for this mess or make up for the aggravation we’ve been put through. As far as I’m concerned, people who commit identity theft should pay a price that is much greater than the one they inflicted on others.