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What if...

...criminals really had to pay for their crimes?
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Case Study:
Non violent criminal costs his victim $500,000 by committing fraud.

There are two choices:
  1. imprison him to "teach him a lesson," create a dis-incentive to crime and make him "pay his debt to society." This costs society another $500,000 for a ten year term, does not repay the victims, does not support the criminal's family, pay his bills or settle his obligations. Add in those expenses and the cost of his crime is now well over a million dollars, or
  2. Require him to work at his highest potential for the state, pay him subsistence wages, repay his victims with the lion's share of the money he earns.

Which option truly allows the criminal to pay his debt to society?

Which is a greater disincentive to crime? Ten years in a minimum security prison with time off for good behavior, or as long as it takes living on a welfare income in welfare housing working at a six-figure salary until the debt is paid? With interest.