Can’t find an online link for this story yet - I’ll post one if one turns up - but I heard this on the radio this morning. A woman who had shoplifted (from Home Depot, IIRC) was given a choice by the judge - 3 days in jail, or stand outside the store all day with a sign that read “I am a convicted shoplifter”. She picked the latter. Which would you pick?
My inclination would be to take the 3 days in jail.
(Though I wonder if you could take the sign and then show up disguised with a false beard and sunglasses).
In my highschool American Gov’t class, We had to got to the circuit court and sit through a day of cases. One dumb SOB pissed-off the judge, who sentenced him to a month of Sundays (that’s 30 Sundays, for those not in-the-know) of pushing a wheelbarrow full of gravel 10 times around the courthouse. A sign stating his offense was to be planted in the gravel. I can’t remember this guy’s crime, but I remember his sentence! I never wanted to face Judge A.P. Close as a defendant.
Actually, this works out well, IMO… The offender is punished in a way that doesn’t damage his earnings ability or home life, the punishment in memorable, and likely to have one hell of a mental imapact on the offender, and the passers-by will know that commiting that particular crime is a bad idea!
So, IRT the OP, I’d take the humiliation. At least I’d get to sleep in my own bed that night.
Of course, we could always take a cue from Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash and tattoo warnings of violent offenders’ crimes across their foreheads. The two mentioned in the books are “Poor Impulse Control” and “Racially Intolerant”.
For capital crimes, we could just send them to Kafka’s Penal Colony for more in depth scribing.
Bunnygirl re: your question. When I run a criminal background check, what pops up (if there is a record) is a chart containing 3 sections:
Original arrest section. This lists date, place and crime charged
Prosecution section. So far, all the ones I’ve seen mention being bound over for court
Dispenseation section - final results ie if the charged was reduced, found guilty, pled guilty (I assume found innocent would be there, too , just haven’t seen one yet),
So, as long as you were found guilty or pled guilty, that’s what would show up on the background check, (sometimes it would ALSO include the sentence, depending on where you’re getting the info).
On the OP. damn. this may be begging the question, but my absolute terror of being in the position of facing jail/public guilt keeps me from even remotely looking like I may be shoplifting or doing anything else wrong. I’ll be over in the corner whimpering at the thought having to choose between those two things.
If I lived in some suburban wonderland, I’d take the three days in jail. If it was the L.A. county jail or Rikers Island, I would definitely take the humiliation.
I know how old this thread is but I just wanted to comment on this because it’s not the first time I’ve heard it. Specifically, the part about sleeping in. They don’t let you “sleep in” in jail, do they? I would think that there would be a general “lights on” time by which point everyone would have to be up. Is that wrong?