zlacker

>>fortra+(OP)
Maximum sentence is 10 years, she's unlikely to get that, but _minimum_ is 5 years IIRC. That's a _long_ time. And then you're a felon and you can't find a decent job. What was the calculus there, I wonder? Under what circumstances would a person rationally consider torching a police cruiser to be worth the risk of 5 years in the slammer?

>>m0zg+Wc
Apparently she picked up an already burning piece of wood and threw it in. So it's less likely that she left the house that morning with the intent of torching cars.

In the moment, with everyone and everthing going on around her, I doubt she was thinking rationally or even knew that torching a car would be a long prison sentence. (if someone asked me before reading this article, I would have assumed a large fine + some community service maybe; then again I am not American so I have no idea how sentences compare).

>>koyote+5e
Think that's pretty much why people are torching cop cars. You'd have to get up pretty early to prove that person is a danger to society, but now their whole life is fucked which doesn't help anyone. We could however use a few hours a week to pickup park trash to better society and the lesson would probably be learned.

>>jethro+Zh
She's kinda fucked either way. Even a misdemeanor would be annoying to have to explain every time she wanted a job, a felony would just about guarantee she'd only ever be able to be an entrepreneur. But otherwise I agree, skip jail, just hit her with a treasury offset for the cost of the car along with a suitable extra for penalty. She'll get the message for a long time.

>>rootus+Yn
> But otherwise I agree, skip jail, just hit her with a treasury offset for the cost of the car along with a suitable extra for penalty.

Then if someone can't pay it back, you either have to 1) not penalize them, making poverty equal immunity, or 2) jail them, making it jail for the poor and a fine for the rich. Neither seems fair.

>>hirund+9r
You can garnish wages at 1-2 percent. The goal isn't getting repayment, and when you factor against the cost of incarceration, not sending someone to prison for five years is a wash. From what I've read, the average cost of incarceration costs about 70k. Probably enough to pay for the car in one year. So the minimum sentence of 5 years is going to run 1.2 mil while the inmate can't pay because best case they make $1-2 an hour.

It's far more costly to incarcerate than to get repayment for almost everything. It's still more costly to incarcerate than to just forgive the debt and make it painful enough to not repeat.

>>jethro+es
> average cost of incarceration costs about 70k

In 2015, according to [0], the average was about half that.

> minimum sentence of 5 years is going to run 1.2 mil

How do you get from 70K (presumably per year) to $1.2M over five years? On average it should be more like $135K, with some cheaper states spending about half that.

[0] https://www.vera.org/publications/price-of-prisons-2015-stat...

>>rootus+Wx
Bad Math.

These numbers are quite a bit lower, I was reading the CA LAO numbers from 18-19 the other day and didn't really factor in cheaper states.

Even at 135k, the cost to society is 135k + the cost of the car + lost productivity of the individual and the economic drag that has on the immediate community, family/roomates/partners and such. At that price, getting community service is a major cost savings and getting repayment is even better.