[FNU LNU]

Few realize that the first penitentiary in the world was founded in Philadelphia in 1792. Of course, jails existed in history for the purpose of holding the accused until trial, but the concept of warehousing crimnals to cause them to repent was entirely new.

Imagine a criminal justice system where prisons didn't even exist, but where a person paid for his crimes rather than having society pay to keep him incarcerated.

Historically, one state existed. If you stole someone's property, say a sheep, and were caught with the animal in your possession, you repaid the victim with two sheep, but you didn't go to prison. The victim also got a financial settlement, a large concern in our time.

If you sold the stolen the sheep, thereby being more involved in the crime, you paid the victim four sheep.

If you committed a capital crime, (murder, rape, kidnapping, etc.) you paid with your life, but you didn't go to prison. Such facilities didn't exist in this nation. They were not needed.

Such a system would completely do away with our newest growth industry, prisons, and restore the victim of crime financially.

I'm not going to tell you where I got the idea for this system, but it's from a reliable source.

[Melas]

Restitution is a pie in the sky concept. Unfortunately its way to easy to commit crimes against property which the monetary value is so high you could never hope to make restitution to the victim.