Agreed, just hit him with a massive fine and let him go. The imprisonment of people for "white collar crimes" is utterly absurd when our prisons are overcrowded as is.
No, other way around. Let out the non-violent poors and put the white collar criminals in their cells.
neither should be in prison. At least it wasn't more - though honestly two years in the slammer is a long time.
Why should people go to prison for stealing a hundred dollars but not a hundred million?
The one who steals a hundred can go back and likely steal again. The one who steals $100 million, however will have likely gained enough notoriety as to not pose a threat, at least not to the sort of organisations one can steal $100 million from (hence why this wouldn't apply to murders).
I was (obviously?) being a bit tongue in cheek, but does anyone think Bernie Madoff, for example, is that much of a threat to society? Who would do business with him? I'm skeptical he's dangerous enough to justify the state spending tens of thousands of dollars to keep and support him in a prison. It would be better, I think, to let him support himself with a job he can find- which would inevitably be rather menial manual work.
In some ways that would more punishing and degrading than being locked up, at the government's expense, with regular meals and a clean bed for the rest of his life.
