Creative Sentencing
A New Way to Punish Shoplifters
By Daniel Muniz

Judge Kenneth Robertson Jr. of Attalla City in Alabama tried a novel approach in meting out punishment to petty thieves. In order to avoid incarceration for 60 days, he offered two people who were convicted of shoplifting the option to stand in front of the very same store where they pulled off their five-finger discounts for four hours for two consecutive Saturday afternoons. But there is a catch to this generous alternative.

Each shoplifter had to wear a sandwich board sign as shown below:

In our modern era of moral relativism, situational ethics, and psycho-babble, it is refreshing to see someone in our legal system resorting to old fashion values, one of which is shame. There was once a day and age in this country that people actually thought that bad behavior, such as stealing, was shameful.

But times have changed.

Not only can you find defense attorneys who can explain why society ought to overlook these inappropriate actions, there is now a huge segment of the population who sympathize with criminals. And it doesn’t take much of an explanation such as growing up poor, being neglected by a parent, dropping out of school, I’m a minority, etc., to legitimize criminal activity. There always seems to be a good enough excuse to explain why someone did something nefarious and why they shouldn’t be punished for it by our legal system.

However, Judge Robertson took a much different approach.

It simply boiled down to avoiding jail time by actually admitting what you did and letting the whole world know you did it.

And obviously it wasn’t anything to be proud of. Holding a big sign in front of Wal-Mart during the busiest time of day and having customers walk by and see it is pretty outrageous. There were plenty of people, myself included, who chuckled and broke out into laughter upon seeing this spectacle.

But is this form of punishment really an anachronism in our day and age?

Perhaps so since we live in a world where defining what is “right” and “wrong” is nearly impossible because society has abolished so many standards of decency. More than a generation ago, if a teacher or a police officer wanted to punish a child, a parent would very likely support the authority figure. Today, that same parent is very likely to lie and cover up the bad behavior of their child regardless of how dangerous or criminal it was.

However, this judge made a very bold move and it is slowly becoming more commonplace throughout the country. Judges in different cities have made similar sentences such as putting a sign in front of the homes of vandals who spray paint graffiti. Other municipalities that are Spring Break destinations offer the choice of picking up garbage for a day to teenagers and college students who are arrested.

Although there were plenty of people who felt that holding the “I am a thief” sign amounted to cruel and unusual punishment because it did something that is quite shocking to their senses; it actually made people publicly admit that what they did was wrong. To the “hug a thug” groups, they seem to care more about the emotional well-being of hoodlums and losers instead of caring about the individuals and businesses who were victimized.

The people who are sympathetic to criminals and to their bad behavior have established a very perverse incentive to these miscreants. In a twisted sort of way, a lowlife now has justification for his or her bad deeds and can use it to excuse criminal activity because it is no longer wrong.

Society needs more people like Judge Robertson. There are universal values such as honesty, responsibility, and integrity that need to be restored. Perhaps creative sentencing like this is a good first step.

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