We are often asked what we think about someone’s health issues and a common response is, “My Dad never sent me to medical school, so my opinion isn’t worth much.”

The same is true about law school and even law enforcement training, but while nothing is a substitute for medical training, we believe common sense and a sense of fairness should be able to assist in the practice of law, especially in the sentencing for crimes. It seems that punishments for crimes committed keep getting softer and softer. Steal multiple millions of dollars? Thank you very much; please try not to do it again and would you like S&H Green Stamps with that sentence? This past Friday, two men in Pittsburgh pleaded guilty to stealing extremely rare books from the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh. Neither will spend a day in jail. Apparently, shoplifting and jay-walking are much worse crimes.

You always need to consider the parameters already established under the law for sentencing for specific crimes. Every time someone commits a crime against children, we have someone write on our social media pages that they should get life in prison or the death penalty. That suggestion isn’t any more acceptable than the perpetrator being given house arrest and probation. But punishments for crime have become a joke. We no longer even expect a serious slap on the wrist, but rather many crimes get handled the same way Andy and Barney would handle them in Mayberry — with maybe a strong talking to and a piece of Aunt Bea’s apple pie.

In the Carnegie library case, Judge Alexander Bicket used the coronavirus as his excuse not to pass stronger sentences on the two wayward men who, as of yet, hadn’t gotten the Mayberry kindness we all deserve when we steal $8 million worth of valuable books. Shame on the Carnegie Library for having rare books that tempted them to steal. Maybe everyone who ever contributed to it should help pay to rehabilitate these unfortunate men. Judge Bicket is quoted by The Associated Press as saying, “I hope this is a learning lesson for everyone, including the Carnegie Library” What in the world is this thinking? He hopes the library learned a lesson, but he gave the thieves probation sprinkled with house arrest and a jar of homemade pickles.

We don’t want to see persons thrown in jail for silly acts of stupidity, but these guys were serious masterminds working diligently for years to commit their crimes and cover them up as they did them. On a much lesser scale, the same thing is happening across all of our courts. District attorneys and judges are having to consider the ramifications of overcrowded jails and prisons during the threats that COVID-19 presents. Now seems the perfect time to commit a crime and be able to stay out of jail because of the public fear of spreading the virus through the prison, and then having it carried out onto the streets of our communities. Plea deals are the way of the world these days and with good intention, including avoiding backlogging the court system and keeping victims and their families from having to go through further harm by sitting through trials. But there must be limits to the lack of punishment for crime. Does anyone see any reason these same guys wouldn’t try again? They got away with it for years, so maybe they can do even better with the next scheme. And judges who speak about their sentencings should hire public relations firms to write their comments. Otherwise, people will maybe wonder if their father ever sent them to law school.