Time served...

Time served... those are two words police officers and District Attorneys do not like to hear spoken in court. It simply means that yes, this person is guilty but they have been sitting in jail for a bit (mostly because they couldn't make bond) and we are going to let them go. As a former police officer I can tell you, it does kind of make you wonder why you arrested the guy/gal in the first place.

Yesterday or the day before, in Yorktown VA a whacko man assaulted and stabbed his former girlfriend and took her hostage in the WalMart. Now, normally I would pass over this as I just flat out hate the news but it caught my attention for several reasons.

First, this is my favorite WalMart - nice, fairly new, clean - and I shop there a good bit. How dare someone shut it down for several hours because they do not know how to resolve an argument peacefully? Really?!? Do they not teach proper conflict resolution these days? And don't give me that crap about his bad upbringing and being poor - I know plenty of poor people that don't stab the one they are arguing with.

Second, the guy got out of jail on the 23rd of this month. Yep - you heard me right, just 4/5 days before this he was sentenced to "time served". Guess what his crime was? Assaulting the same woman in a domestic disturbance. Time served - yep - hate those two words.

We, as a population, really need to think about this type of thing. If someone assaults me do I want them getting out on time served so they can come back and do it again? I get that jails are full, I get that housing these people is expensive but there are alternatives.

We could all do what that sheriff out west is doing - house them in tents and make them work the chain gang... he even has female prisoners doing it because he wants to be "fair". No TV either. And he feeds them what the kids eat in public schools.... who is going to say that the food isn't adequate?

We could make them have prison farms that pay for themselves... bad year farming = lean winter of eating. Seems reasonable to me.

We could fence off Utah and put them all there. They would be responsible for everything - food, water, electricity.... it could be a penal colony like Georgia was and Australia.... if they kill each other oh well.... yeah, I have no sympathy and saw "Escape from New York" too many times.

We have to think of something. This type of thing happens every day and gets closer to home with every occurrence. Just saying "you were bad and we made you sit in jail for a week or two" isn't cutting it. Not anymore.

Okay - that's all I've got on that, for now. It just riles me up and gets me cranky to dwell on it and I don't need to be riled or craned any more than I already am.

Later...