Better Than Prison

Though the sentences for many crimes are prescribed by law, judges often have enough leeway to offer a choice between prison and other punishments--with all sorts of strange conditions attached. It is not clear whether or not those conditions are always legal, but defendants faced with a recent spate of such unusual choices have consistently rejected prison.

In Miami, Mrs. Mary Louise Patterson, 38, mother of six, was being sentenced in a misdemeanor assault case. She explained that at 315 Ibs. she was too fat to work. The judge put her on probation for three years on condition that she lose 3 Ibs. a week under a supervised diet until she had dropped 65 Ibs. If she falls off the diet, she could go to jail. Mrs. Patterson accepted her sentence happily, saying, "Oh good. Now I'll finally lose weight."

In North Las Vegas a judge offered a punishment-fits-the-crime choice to a man who had beaten a four-year-old with a belt: a $100 fine plus either 20 days or a public flogging of ten lashes with a bailiff's belt. He took the licking. One week later in the same town, a man being sentenced for starving some horses chose 24 hours in the slammer with no food rather than seven days with the regular amenities.

In New York, William vanden Heuvel, chairman of the city's board of corrections, suggested that many petty offenders be required to do various socially beneficial jobs like cleaning up their neighborhoods instead of serving short jail terms. Underlying it all seems to be a tacit recognition that almost anything is better than doing time in the current U.S. prison system.

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