Flickr.com PhotoWord comes from the "TJ Waconia Victims Blog" as follows: confessed fraudsters Jon Helgason and Thomas Balko will be sentenced March 10, 9:30 a.m., at the U.S. Courthouse, 300 South Fourth Street, Minneapolis.
No, I do not have the particular room. But hopefully they picked a big one, as there has been media and public interest in this case...or at least there was several months ago.
I plan to be working and will not be able to attend, so I'm putting out the call for pictures and firsthand accounts to be submitted to this blog. (My email is hoff_john@yahoo.com)
I have often stated my position of "let the punishment fit the crime" with Helgason and Balko; basically a "house arrest" situation where they would live and work to benefit the neighborhood in North Minneapolis instead of going to a federal prison where their time will be spent doing little of social value.
However, for the past few months I have been reading "I Was Wrong" by Jim Baker about his time in the federal prison in Rochester, Minnesota. If and when Balko and Helgason are sentenced to prison, I am planning a very SPECIAL blog post based on some excerpted material from that book. If they are (miraculously) sentenced to some kind of creative "house arrest" situation, well, I will talk to some folks about putting together a little gift basket. I'm not even being sarcastic. I see little value in incarceration, but I view it as superior to letting criminals run loose. Yet I do advocate for more creative and humane incarceration which gives back value to society and, in particular, the victims of the crime.
(Do not click "Read More")
Monday will be a great day! Hope they get 20 years a piece. I used to work with Balko 15 years ago and he was an asshole back then.
ReplyDelete