Agreed, but you know who will push back? The police. The private companies running the prisons. Because it means less leverage, less power, and ultimately, less money.

Private prisons don't exist in many states and represent a very small fraction of people in prison. We lock up so many people because for many years that has been a popular thing to do, and people have affirmatively voted for it. I think those people are wrong, but let's not mislead ourselves about how this happened.

Even public prisons are primarily run and populates through the formiddable lobbying power of police and prison guard unions. Their influence is far more insidiuous than that of the comparably small for-profit prison industry.

Also an opportunity to question your union stance.

I wasn't responding to the article. I was responding to the comment that said "I'd love to see all non violent offenders skip jail."

For people that don't see prison as punishment, indeed, Maddoff should not a done jail. He should have been bankrupt and forbidden to ever work with financial services.

This.

Remove all his assets, maybe even his citizenship. I mean when crime exceeds billions of dollars, that's a bit more than just petty theft or something too...

The punishment should fit the crime, but prisons should be ONLY to protect people from dangerous criminals (Serial killers, rapists, etc) and not a form of 'punishment'.

For madoff just tax him at 90% of his income for life, assuming he/kin have zero assets. Ensuring he has to work at walmart as a greeter just to get by. I'm sure that's probably just as bad as prison for many white-collar criminals.

Madoff would have been less likely to go to jail had he made off with poor peoples’ money instead of that of rich people.