Petty theft crimes should be fined. Dont have money and we'll sentence you to a working farm for a few hundred hours picking up cabbage or other vegatables

Maybe we should impose a "bleeding heart" tax on those who advocate not jailing thieves, the proceeds of the tax to provide compensation for those victimised by the thieves.

He has five convictions totaling less than $500. I'm guessing this is over a year or two. So Louisiana is going to spend ~$18K/year to prevent $500 or less in crime per year?

He has five convictions totaling less than $500. I'm guessing this is over a year or two. So Louisiana is going to spend ~$18K/year to prevent $500 or less in crime per year?

You're assuming he was caught every time he stole something.

But hey, if you're ok with paying for that $500/year, that's great. Eventually you'll teach everyone else that obeying the law is for suckas!

That'll be a great society, yes sir!

Eh, we do need laws that ensure that people who habitually victimize others will eventually be taken off the streets. Seems dumb for some candy bars. He's apparently a klepto. I don't know the success rates for treating kleptomania offhand, it might make more financial sense to give him treatment. Then again, if all his thefts were candy, he may be a homeless methhead. They loves them some sweets. In which case, incarceration may actually improve his life in some basic ways re: food, warmth, medical care.

He has five convictions totaling less than $500.

No, he has five convictions of less than $500 each.

This guy won't stop stealing and he won't learn. Getting him out of
circulation avoids the expense of policework and courts for his
continual petty crime spree. It also improves the quality of life
for his predictable victims. We could argue about just how long is
appropriate to remove him from circulation, but getting him off the
streets for some extended period really is appropriate.

Comparing Lousiana to China is apples to oranges.

China doesn't have to actually put people in prison. The entire country, other than the autocrats is pretty much a giant slave labor camp.

A guy like this, they wouldn't bother to imprison, they would just shoot him in the head, and be done with it.

I don't have much sympathy for people who run afoul of habitual-offender laws. And this is another aspect of broken-windows policing -- in order to maintain the citizenry's faith in the rule of law, and create the kind of atmosphere that makes people feel safe in their neighborhoods and criminals feel unwelcome, you have to go after stuff like shoplifting, purse snatching, pickpoketing, and vandalism.

How many second chances does a person deserve? Some people are Cluster B's and see other people's compassion and forgiveness as simply a weakness to be exploited. When that starts happening, compassion and forgiveness have to be shut off, else the law-abiding will start to feel like chumps, and then decay and ruin will follow as the honest citizens abandon the area. You can make an argument that habitual-offender laws should have a ratchet function: for the third offense, it's three years added on to the normal sentence, for the fourth offense it's six years, for the fifth it's twelve years, and so on. However, some criminals simply will not be deterred; after serving a sentence, they will commit another crime just as fast as they possibly can, just to show society who's boss. The only thing you can do with such people is not let them out.

The psychology industry has done a really poor job of addressing this. Good psychiatric information would be a big help to the courts and the public in deciding where to put rehabilitation resources, and which criminals are and aren't likely to respond positively to treatment. But we all know that therapists routinely get played by criminals, who know how to tell the therapists what they want to hear. Some people are born bad. You have to sort the wheat from the chaff. Psychology doesn't seen to want to recognize or deal with it.

My gosh this pisses me off to no end. I'm a Louisiana res and we're in a horrendous financial crisis right now to the tune of a billion dollars over the next 2-3 years. I need to digest this info a little bit. I have likely been one of the folks who has advocated for the habitual offender law, but it's like the zero tolerance policy at Louisiana schools. You have to legally give judges and principals and officers leeway for common sense. The intent of the law is good, but cases like this prove one size does not fit all. Our lawmakers have got to fix this.

IRA,

I'm not advocating letting him go unpunished. I'm just questioning the cost/benefit ratio on this solution. Even at $2.5k/year in theft jailing him permanently sounds expensive. Throw in the fact that he is unlikely to ever reform you may as well jail him for life as 20 years.

Are there cheaper alternatives? I have no issue with Lujlp's solution of community service.

Reading the article it looks like he typically steals in the under $50 category. He has been jailed previously, notably 1, 1.5, 3, 3+ years. So there is that ratchet Cousin Dave was talking about.

If I had to guess he steals to get caught and sent back to prison. Send him to a minimum security prison farm out in bumfark nowheresville for life. That has to cost less than $18k/year.

Also, he is 34. After 20 years he will be 54. He will have spent about 30 years in prison. How will he survive in public society? Any bets on how many days till he stuffs a candy bar in his pockets in front of a cashier and walks out?

Are there cheaper alternatives? I have no issue with Lujlp's solution of community service.

Oh, probably.

Ok, I know. Put Mike Rowe in charge of his work schedule. I'm sure there are plenty of Dirty Jobs in Louisiana that this fellow can do.

If he has to muck out people's septic tanks often enough, he might start catching the clue that his life of crime makes him stink.

Literally.

OK, so he had five prior convictions.

But I checked on his name - and how likely is it that he would have gotten the same sentence if he were white? I want to know.

Rather than posing the question that way Lenona what evidence do you have he would have gotten a difference sentence if he was white?

"But I checked on his name - and how likely is it that he would have gotten the same sentence if he were white?"

Oh, I don't know. It's not like they're letting the white trash walk, at least not around here. There's a pretty low-tolerance attitude towards crime regardless of who's committing it.

And I need to find the study again, but I saw one about a year ago where the researchers expected to find that there was a large correlation between race and length of sentence. What they found instead is that gender is a far stronger correlator than race; women on average received sentences that were 60% shorter than men convicted on the same charges. For black men vs. white men, the difference was around 10%.

"... how likely is it that he would have gotten the same sentence if he were white? I want to know."

lenona, we white people are SO RACIST that we would prefer to be robbed by other white people so naturally we are upset when we get robbed by black people.

Guess I gave you more credit than you evidently deserve.

"OH NO! I'm being robbed by a blackie! How embarrassing!"

"Damn! I can't tell 'em apart! How will I tell the police who robbed me?"

He may be doing the minor shoplifting to get a bed for the night. Misdemeanor jail time = 3 hots and a cot.

The hidden engine behind the state's well-oiled prison machine is cold, hard cash. A majority of Louisiana inmates are housed in for-profit facilities, which must be supplied with a constant influx of human beings or a $182 million industry will go bankrupt.

Several homegrown private prison companies command a slice of the market. But in a uniquely Louisiana twist, most prison entrepreneurs are rural sheriffs, who hold tremendous sway in remote parishes like Madison, Avoyelles, East Carroll and Concordia. A good portion of Louisiana law enforcement is financed with dollars legally skimmed off the top of prison operations.

So, the driving force for imprisonment is due less to the privatization of the prisons than to politics and corruption.

Kinda like California, where the prison guards' union is the most powerful union (and political force) in the state and needs a constant influx of prisoners to justify its continued existence and growing political power.

Lenona,
If you really want to know what would have happened to him if he were white, I suggest you read Heather MacDonald's excellent reporting on the American criminal justice system. You might be surprised that your biases are not actually based on fact. I will get you started. Here is a link to her recent testimony before Congress, but most of her articles are available for free on-line.

http://www.city-journal.org/html/myth-criminal-justice-racism-10231.html

I mean, the guy would have gotten the sentence he got in this state, black or white. You did read how much Louisiana likes to send folks to jail, right? I mean, then there's Texas who likes to kill them. Smokey and the Bandit wouldn't be heading to Texarkana more than a few times without doing life around here in one form or fashion.

Think for a minute about what the driver is for minimum sentencing requirements.

If judges/prisons had not released violent criminals to prey again, such laws would not have been passed. Such laws are also the product of the Great Responsibility Transfer Engine - where the State promises the public that they will be "safe" if they just give the State enough power, and then the State reserves violence for itself, penalizing the public for defending itself.

On the other hand, jury nullification could have turned this guy back out - likely to his great distress - until somebody had had enough and beaten him senseless for stealing.

How many would be thieves if they were guaranteed a beating?

Well, no one else commented on this, so I'm going to. They don't go into a lot of detail about what he's stealing, but it sounds like his crimes are of necessity. He's stealing Snickers bars and clothing...as opposed to say, stereo equipment.

It makes me wonder what his situation is. Is he indigent? I'm wondering if he might benefit from public assistance and charity programs rather than throwing him in jail.

"I'm wondering if he might benefit from public assistance and charity programs rather than throwing him in jail."

It'd be cheaper. At least in SC and FL, it's almost automatic to get assistance. In both states, I've seen a hospital visit by a homeless person result in a visit by a rep toting documents to sign up for assistance of various kinds.

"He's stealing Snickers bars and clothing...as opposed to say, stereo equipment. "

I don't know about this particular case, but there are plenty of people who will steal just for the thrill of it. It's fun, it's transgressive, it's sticking it to the Man.

And that's without going into the people who steal to buy drugs. I can make an argument thst such people should be institutionalized and kept shot up with the drug of their choice, 24/7. But besides the impracticality of it, that would be widely regarded as inhumane.

Given the case that led to the Oregon standoff (in which the Supreme Court refused to consider upholding a trial court's ruling that a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence for a fire that harmed no one), one wonders if the Supreme Court considers any sentence at all to violate the 8th Amendment. I suspect they consider the 8th as meaningless as most of the other nine. But this might be a good case with which to find out.

I find it interesting that no one's come up with maybe ten (or even two) examples of white convicts in Louisiana (from the last year or so) getting 20 years to life for stealing that little, even if it is a sixth offense.

lenona, I guess that's up to you then.

Be sure to include the phrase in the mandatory sentencing law that allows whites to not be charged with it.

And how many white convicts have been charged and convicted the same number of times? How much time have you put into this Lenona? What are the demographics of Louisiana vs. their prison system?

All you've done is ask a racially charged question and presented no evidence to back it up. Way to show off your bigotry.

When did you stop beating your children Lenona? I find it interesting no one has presented evidence that Lenona isn't a serial killer. See how easy it is to ask misleading questions.

Well, according to Wikipedia, the black population in Louisiana is just under 33%, so I would expect at least a few examples of white people (in the last FIVE years - OK) getting the same outrageous sentence after that many convictions.

There are more choices than locking this guy up for life or releasing him sooner or later to steal again.

Lock a GPS tracker/bug on his ankle and sentence him to ten to twenty on house arrest. But _don't_ do what many places do and fail to monitor him _closely_. This isn't probation or parole, it is serving his sentence at his own expense. He is authorized to be in his home or at his job at certain times, and there is a computer monitoring his location all the time. There are corrections officers on duty 24x7 waiting for the computer to tell them of a deviation - and randomly monitoring the sound pickups in the trackers. If he gets off course going home from work, he will immediately get a cell phone call - and if he isn't back on track immediately, police will be dispatched to pick him up. If the tracker pick up party sounds, police will be dispatched. If he needs groceries, he calls in and gets permission for the trip. If there are any signs of tampering with the tracker, in a couple of minutes all available police officers will be converging on his position.

And any thefts or other crimes reported to the police are entered into the computer and checked against the recorded positions ever minute of every convict with a tracker.

And that is your bigotry Lenona. You expect but you have no evidence one way or the other.

Louisiana has a population of 4.65 million. Yet we have only one example of someone serving 20 years for stealing candy.