So basically, a man was convicted, sentenced, and released on bail. Then they forgot to tell him to report to prison.

[KrazyHorse]

The point of putting people in jail for crimes is to:

1) isolate criminals from society (it is more difficult for them to victimize noncriminals when they are in jail)
2) deter other people from committing crimes

If this guy really has been living an honest life for 13 years then likely the first is no longer a motivation in this case. As to the deterrence aspect, I would guess that this has already been substantially weakened by the delay in punishment. So overall, the case for sending him to jail now seems pretty weak, while the harm is substantial.

Commute his sentence to community service plus parole and move on.

[Hauldren Collider]

Agree with commuting to community service. But the idea that using jail for its deterrent effect is bad (as Self Biased seems to be claiming) is ridiculous. Fear of jail is a substantial motivator.

[AAAAAAAAH!]

Agree with commuting to community service. But the idea that using jail for its deterrent effect is bad (as Self Biased seems to be claiming) is ridiculous. Fear of jail is a substantial motivator.

How would you know if fear of jail has a "substantial" effect on crime? I'm not saying it doesn't, just wondering why you appear so certain.

[AAAAAAAAH!]

Example of deterrence having no apparent effect:

In practice, of course, such an experiment, and the individual data needed to track it, aren't on offer. David S. Lee of Columbia and Justin McCrary of Michigan have surmounted this obstacle. The economists noted that when kids turn 18, they suddenly face much stiffer adult sanctions. Then they got access to data on all felony arrests in Florida between 1989 and 2002. Each arrest links to an individual, whose birth date is included in the data. This allowed the researchers to create an arrest history for each person arrested and to measure the effect of turning 18, and thus facing longer prison terms, on criminal activity.

In Florida during the years in question, Lee and McCrary found, the probability of being sentenced to prison for an offense jumped from 3 percent to 17 percent at exactly age 18. This tees up the answer to the economists' main question: How does the tendency to commit crimes vary around the 18^th birthday, when the odds of a prison-sentence punishment jump? The answer is, hardly at all. While the probability of being arrested each week falls steadily from age 17 to age 19, there is no sizeable decrease in the arrest rate that corresponds to the bump up to an adult penalty in the weeks before and after people turn 18. To an economist, this is odd. At the grocery store, in weeks that Coke is on sale and Pepsi is not, consumers respond immediately. Coke sells out while Pepsi languishes on the shelf.

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/the_dismal_science/2007/01/the_irrational_18yearold_criminal.html

Of course, it's possible that even juveniles face tough enough sentences to deter anyone who's behaving rationally.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

There's a lot of stuff I don't do partly out of fear of punishment. HC's point makes sense to me.

[AAAAAAAAH!]

Are you trying to cement yourself as the creepiest poster here?

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Why would I do that? Creepy is; it doesn't require proof unless I'm insecure about it.

[Lorizael]

Are you trying to cement yourself as the creepiest poster here?

There's nothing inherently creepy about what he's saying. On a very mundane level, fear of punishment prevents a lot of behavior. For example, if you normally make rolling stops at stop signs but stop for the full 3 seconds when there's a cop behind you, then fear of punishment has changed your behavior.

[AAAAAAAAH!]

I always obey traffic laws so I don't understand your example.

[Ben Kenobi]

Nothing makes you feel old like reading your ex-gf's facebook page and finding out she's graduating high school

[MrFun]

...doesn't seem fair, really.

Life is not fair, son.

[Lancer]

Hang him. If the rope breaks you know God is serious. If it doesn't, well, that's good rope for many household applications.

If you can't do the time, don't...blah.

[The Mad Monk]

If he was a single dead beat dad drunk homeless person without a job your opinion would be different?

Possibly, but that's one reason we give governors extra powers.

[BlackCat]

If he's thrown in jail, they could at least send him here.

Just a warning to some before clicking that link - have your nitroglycerine ready.

[The Mad Monk]

...and he's free.