Let the Punishment Fit the Crime

Let the Punishment Fit the Crime...The first time I ever heard this line, I was 8 years old and watching Haley Mills in The Parent Trap. The movie is about a set of identical twins separated at birth who find each other at summer camp. When they meet, they hate each other and each tries to sabotage the other. When they go too far, the camp director decides that the most fitting punishment she can give them is to force them to spend every waking (and sleeping) moment together. The movie story ends happliy, but that line still sticks in my head and pops up now and then when something stirs my memory. So, when I saw this today, it immediately reminded me of that particular line. What real purpose would it have served if this girl had been thrown in prison? She would have been invisible and anonymous within the prison walls...actually allowing her to pull the "disappearing act" she tried months before. We, the dutiful tax payers, would be feeding her and doing her laundry and providing her with cable TV. Instead, seeing her on the court house lawn in Lawrenceville today - mowing the grass - for all the world to see, I am reassured that our justice system still allows for fair and sometimes even humorous punishments that actually fit the crime. And, good for Jennifer Wilbanks, who obviously has a sense of humor...she's mowing the lawn in a hat that says "Life is Good." Yes, Jennifer, it sure is.