Legislators might get crazy ideas about how to rehabilitate them.
State Rep. T.D. El-Amin wants to recruit nonviolent offenders for the Missouri National Guard, as an alternative to spending time in prison. And who wouldn’t jump at the chance to be a guard instead of a prisoner?
This proposal may be penny wise, but it’s pound foolish. You’d save a little bit in expenditures on prisons; the downside is that the National Guard would be composed of people in various stages of rehabilitation. If nonviolent offenders want to serve, they should go through the regular application process like everyone else — after they’ve completed their sentences in prison.
