When convicted criminals thumb their noses at the mercy shown by
the courts, the answer from the bench should be jail time
You get one shot at a second chance.

When Judge Susan Bernardini sentenced Anthony McDowell on vehicular manslaughter charges in 2005 in the death of 15-year-old Erin Kinkel, she ordered him to perform 300 hours of community service and pay more than $16,000 in restitution. She could have imposed a sentence of one year in county jail.

In the accident that is at the heart of this case, Kinkel was riding in the bed of a pickup truck that McDowell was driving. Kinkel was ejected from the truck when McDowell swerved off the road and hit a tree.

It’s nearly three years later, and McDowell has done no community service and paid only $156 of his fine.

He was arrested in Morgan Hill last week after skipping a parole violation hearing.

“He was given a chance, and he hasn’t taken advantage of that chance,” Deputy District Attorney Amir Alem said of McDowell. “He’s done absolutely nothing, and nothing has changed. I don’t see why he shouldn’t go to jail this time around.”

We don’t either.

McDowell should receive jail time for violating his parole, and he should receive jail time instead of community service on the original charges.

As a society, we should heed the proverb “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.”

Our criminal justice system gave McDowell chances to repay his debts to society without jail time, to show that he truly regretted his crime, and that he had learned his lesson and changed his ways. He ignored the opportunity, thumbed his nose at the mercy shown to him and added further insult and injury to the victim’s family.

If a trip through the criminal justice system that stops short of jail time fails to convince criminals to play by society’s rules – and that includes following court orders – then we can only hope that time behind bars will succeed.

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