Prepare for Drama... MO Gov. Parsons commutes sentence for Britt Reid

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by DenverChief

I mean…I’m all for punishment but keeping him and others like him in prison is just taking up space and tax payer dollars. I think prison should be more about violent offenders, there are other ways to punish without prison that are more productive for society as a whole. He could be sentenced to 1000’s of hours of service etc. I just don’t think prison is the right answer. Now, jail is another thing. In CO you can only sentence up to two years in jail - probably the same in MO - but prison typically does not rehab people it makes them worse.

I generally agree with this in philosophy, as long as you have enough of a punishment for the offender to cause them to never do this behavior again. I'm not sure that public service is enough, especially for a guy who leads a comfortable life due to family wealth. I don't know what punishment you'd add, but it needs to be equal or greater to the hardship that the family now has with a disabled child. Maybe you brand "Drunk Driver" into his forehead or something.

I think the bad look is that it was commuted for a "celebrity child". Would it have been commuted if he had been small-town barber Rufus McGinnity who had done the same thing? Did the sentences get commuted of everyone who has committed the same crime and is now in prison? I doubt it.