On Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:05:59 -0000, "'Mike'"
wrote:

One of the prisoners was in for taking cars. "It would be cheaper for the
Government to buy me a car" he said one day. I politely told him that he
should get a job and pay for his car as I had done. I then put a deterrent
scheme to him. "If you were sentenced to 14 days with the proviso that next
time it would be 28 days and when you got to prison all you were doing was
shifting a pile of sand from one end of a corridor, and when that was done
you would shift it all back again, would you think twice before putting your
hand on a car door handle with the view to pinching it, knowing you will be
shifting sand for 28 days and the next term 56 days etc?" He agreed it would
be a deterrent.

You believed him because he told you what you wanted to hear. Did you
similarly believe all the inmates who undoubtedly told you they were
innocent?

There have been so many studies that show that it is the probability
of getting caught rather than the severity of the punishment that is
the deterrent that I wonder how you can seriously believe any
different. People commit crime because they do not seriously believe
they will get caught. It makes no difference if you don't get caught
and sentenced to community service than if you don't get caught and
sentenced to 10 years hard labour. The result is exactly the same in
both cases.

--
Cynic