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Thu 16 Feb, 2006 08:37 pm
Drunk drivers' penalty in Taiwan: Pay fine or play mahjong with the elderly
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - Drunk drivers in Taiwan can now choose their penalty: Pay a fine or play mahjong with the elderly.
Petty criminals in Taiwan are increasingly being handed a variety of civil duties rather than serving time in prison or cleaning the streets, said Hsu Yi-ling, an official at the Taoyuan Prosecutors Office in northern Taiwan.
Playing the popular Chinese tile game of mahjong with token money has taught offenders to love and care for the elderly, Hsu said.
"The offenders first dismissed the duty as wasting time, but they soon discovered they were respected and drew satisfaction from helping the elderly," Hsu said.
Instead of jail terms, the Taiwan government has encouraged prosecutors to hand out civil service duties to petty criminals, such as first-time burglars and those posting nude pictures on the Internet, she said.
Quote:Instead of jail terms, the Taiwan government has encouraged prosecutors to hand out civil service duties to petty criminals, such as first-time burglars and those posting nude pictures on the Internet, she said.
Oh, sure. Next they will be posting nude pictures of old mahjongg on the internet.
You sound like you're getting excited by the prospect! :wink:
Let me know when you find them.
A long time ago I was told what happened in a beach community in Manitoba, Canada. This summer home village had only foot paths; all the cars were in
a large parking lot outside the community.
One Sunday morning three teenagers let the air out of all tires of three dozen cars. They stopped laughing hysterically when the RCMP caught them in the act.
They were given three hand pumps and told to fill all the tires with air. After six hours of pumping they were cured for life of emptying tires.
DI, an excellent example! I would like to see much more of these kind of sentences.
Picking up litter, helping old folks, cleaning up graffiti, etc....
Creativity in sentencing can sometimes be a very good idea, e. g. having graffitti "artists" clean up their area, having litterers pick up trash, etc.
However, such creativity can be problematic if it isn't applied across the board (which, when you think about it, is close to impossible to do). What I mean is, what if only white kids get cleanup duty (and no record or only a minor one), whereas minority kids get jail or juvey time? What if someone isn't given light creative stuff because a judge doesn't like that person's age, weight, gender, hair color, perfume, etc. etc. etc.? Plus, what happens when it's a roll of the dice as to which judge you get - Judge X who immediately sends offenders to jail, or Judge Y who looks for alternatives? If that happens, then sentencing becomes affected by an accident of the day or place when/where you committed an offense, or a fluke of judges' vacations and the court's scheduling system.
Mandatory sentencing requirements are intended to stave off those kinds of inequities. However, they have their own problems. In the 70s, New York adopted mandatory sentencing for certain drug offenses (the Rockefeller Drug Laws -- Rockefeller had been governor) and, as a result, prisons are overcrowded with minor offenders. Same thing happens with three strikes laws, e. g. three of the same or similar offenses (at a moderate level, usually), and suddenly you're in jail rather than on probation or doing community service -- but the problem with that is (a) it throws undue weight on the third offense and (b) it gives offenders close to a free pass on the first two offenses.
What to do?
BTW, I don't have a solution to this. I'm not sure anyone really does. If I may steer the direction of the discussion a little, may I ask, what do other people think?
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