Convicted criminals should pay cost of imprisonment?

f w

If I'm not mistaken, for some crimes they already do that. In New York State and Connecticut, if you commit a crime with your car, i.e. your the get away driver in a bank robbery, or sell stolen property out of your car - they "seize" the car as "evidence". After the party is either found guilty or pleads out, the car goes to a "police auction". Drug crimes they just seize everything. In fact, most of what you buy at police auctions is just that: Buying seized property from criminals.

Hope that helps you out!

Mucky

Oh what an excellent idea!!!!!!! Will you please run for Prime Minister?

Then again, a lot of these scrotes don't have any assets, but take everything that they do have and leave them with the bare minimum.

quelisto

No because then they'd just go on frickin' welfare as soon as they got out.

I say force them to work the entire time they are in prison, 12 hours a day minimum.

Danger Mouse

I think that is a good idea you have there. But difficult to make fair. For example, a petty thief may get 6 months. If he's a petty thief then he probably has nothing to take away, also if he has a house then would it be fair to take it when he's in prison for say, persistant shop lifting?
The big drug barons an corruption crims should be taken for everything they have got though. No system is fair, but I think the one you suggest is more fair than the one we have.
PS... In the UK old people have to pay for their nursing homes, many have to sell their houses and use the kids inheritance, and they haven't even committed a crime!
How twisted is that?

Jabberwock

This will cause judges to send more people to prison.

R L

Whoever you are i'm totally agreeing with you, my only suggestion is to stop fox hunting, animal testing etc! Jails are full of suitable candidates! Of course! why should we pay for their luxuries!

Kevin

It would make sense. I don't know any prisons that do it though.

Some County Jails do this. The jail in my County is "pay to stay". Anyone being housed there is billed somewhere around $56.00 a day. They get a bill after they are released.

jdmaher@sbcglobal.net

MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY!!!!!!!

Asif

I think our tax dollars should not pay for criminals AND I believe that single people should get a tax deduction because they don't have children, and therefore, their tax dollars shouldn't go to pay for schools they aren't using. Make sense?

You should only be taxed on the services you use. If you aren't a criminal - don't pay for prison. If you don't have kids, you shouldn't have to pay for education and schools.

Dogsbody

Absobloodylutely.
Why the hell should we pay??

shorty

At the workhouse in MN they have to pay per day. I think it's a great idea

Icarus

wicked question!! damn we'd probably be 15% better off straight away for not being a crim!

Big up- time to write to the PM...

Del Piero 10

Everbody is missing the point here. People who have been wrongly convicted and subsequently aquitted have their "keep" in prison subtracted from their compensation for wrongful imprisonment. Why should a convicted felon not pay when innocent person has to?

Mags

Yes, they should! If we think about it, they get a free of charge sentence.

Why should we put more money towards prisons rather than schools, when the people who go to prison can pay for it with what they have? It's just unfair that people who are honest and follow the law have to pay and almost reward those who don't do either.

But on the other hand, if they sell everything on the way to prison and leave nothing behind, once they get out they will continue doing whatever they were doing before to get those things back (since they don't have anything). For this I would suggest that the prisoners actually work for their stay while in prison, instead of selling everything that they have.

wish I were

YES! They did the crime, they should have to pay for their keep!

Jacks

So in other words....

IF they have any possessions, we take them so when they get out they really do have nothing. Yeah...that is a good way to prevent crime, let the convicts out with nothing to support themselves....

nana4dakids

Yes they should. If they are going to prison I think that they should at least foot part of the bill and if it their second, third or more conviction, I think they should have to sell their cars and houses if need be to cover the cost.

regerugged

I think it should be done.

schmeckschmack

Yes I agree. it is unfair for the law abiding tax player to have to pay for the criminal to be in prison - although I think I'd rather pay and have them in there than not pay and have them roaming the streets! There should be a way they can help with the cost of living in the prison, like having a sort of low skilled job, maybe some administration or making clothes or something? It's a tricky one, and if I'm honest I'm not sure what people do all day in prison - do they just sit there?

Doethineb

You are leaving a few things out of the equation. Most prisoners have families outside, generally living in poverty. You are proposing to make those families even poorer. As it is, they have to scrape together the money to travel considerable distances by public transport on visiting days and are expected to do their best to look smart, so as not to let the prisoner down.
Another thing you are forgetting is that the court often makes a compensation in favour of victims. If you are going to deprive the prisoner of all his assets, it is going to be even harder than otherwise for him to find the money to do this.
A third thing which you are ignoring is the fact that in a number of prisons throughout the world prisoners in fact work. They are therefore making a contribution to the system and effectively paying their way.

diane62

This is a very good question, and there is no black/white answer. If a man is convicted of raping one of his children and the courts sell of his home & assets, what will the victims of his crime do? Wouldn't this further vicimize the victims? However, the criminals do work in prison...take all the money they earn - make them grow food, work in the fields (ie.. do the work that we justify hiring illegal Immigrants to do) and use that money to pay the costs of keeping them locked up and paying restitution to their victims.

Bob G

NO BLOODY WAY!

People in prison are already 'paying their debt to society' through the loss of their personal liberty, often, as previously noted, while performing prison labor. You want them to pay EXTRA for the 'privilege' of being incarcerated, especially when those costs have ALREADY been paid through taxes? As previously noted, making prison a paying proposition inserts a really dangerous incentive into the 'justice' system.

If you're going to start whining about the 'cost to society' of locking up all those miscreants out there, two things. First, again, that's what we pay taxes FOR. Second, I say talk to your state (and Federal, and local) legislatures about why the heck they're making so many little personal misbehaviors into felonies requiring incarceration! If we weren't throwing so many people behind bars for, say, possessing a couple of ounces of a prohibited vegetable substance, there'd be plenty of room for those bad actors who pose a clear and present danger to society without needing to build new prisons or, worse, 'outsource' them.

Norskeyenta

It is being done. The men/women incarcerated have lost everything. And if they can earn money in prison, they have to continue to pay for what they did. Not only do the bad criminals pay, but the drunk drivers, anyone who is put in jail for several days or months, they end up paying for the room and board . For eveyday the prisoner is confined, the bill builds up and they do have to pay, for fines, room and board.

SunnyDays

While many may think this is a good idea, its not, why do you think many actually live a life of crime to begin with, because of poverty! You also have to consider that some people are convicted and imprisoned, only to have their sentence over turned such as the mothers in the UK who were accused of killing their babies, Angela Canning and the one who died recently, why should they be imprisoned and then forced to pay for it? Think of the exceedingly heavy compensation claims that would encourage!

Godly Reality Check

They do... When they work in the system and make 25 cents an hour.

It's like some private colleges in the US. Some people can't afford them so hey have special programs where the students are the mechanics, janitors, plumbers, e.t.c. and it brings the cost of maintenance workers down while giving work experience so they don't have to hire people for a larger amount, So therefore they can lower the cost of tuition through this.

These colleges pay minimum wage though... The prisons don't

Raoul Duke

And the consequences of that would be what besides leaving them little option except crime in order to survive?

Why not just deal with non-violent criminals separately and not spend the money in the first place?

As the prison system is privatized, it operates more like a hotel chain - the goal being to keep as many beds full as possible. It is economics, not justice.

Pinhead

I agree but wouldn't putting them to work to pay for their upkeep be a better idea, a bit like chain gangs in the US? then peeps could see them giving something back to society

Smudgeward

So how would it be fair to screw only the ones who have money? Have you thought that they have families that would be held responsible having done nothing to deserve it?
The worst 'criminals' never get labeled criminals and get away w. being paid to run the country, that's injustice.

Now that's just crazy. Who in the world would do that. Do you think that Martha Stewart would pay a monthly bill to house criminals? No I don't think so.

Matt

No. They are paying their debt to society by going to prison. If you do this, you will only punish their families. They should do their time, we should keep them safe, and then let them have another chance.

streona

When people falsely imprisoned are compensated the cost of their imprisonment is deducted from their award. How they must laugh...

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