By Alex Irizarry
Staff Writer

Back in the old days when a person committed a crime, they were expected to fulfill a sentence in a prison. However, that system is being undermined by a new option allowing offenders to be sent to a pay-to-live jails, where inmates are afforded many of the privileges they had before their arrest, ones that they do not necessarily deserve.

This is not strictly pertaining to the wealthy, elite or famous; no one should be able to buy their way out of a prison sentence and enjoy comforts when they are to be punished for their crimes. Those luxuries were forfeited when they did the crime.

It should be noted there is an application process convicted felons have to go through. Also, the program is only really prominent in counties in California and Ohio at the moment, but it is gaining steam across these areas.

It is true that county prisons are not the safest, cleanest or happiest places on earth, but they are not meant to be – it is a prison. Prisoners are there for a reason, they belong there, and there shouldn’t be no exceptions to this rule. But of course it’s not a prefect system, and there are occasionally exceptions, where innocent men and women are convicted of crimes they did not commit. But those are few and far between. No convicted prisoner should be allowed phone access and television in their cells, as they are in one facility in Seal Beach. It is ridiculous.

Granted, only convicts who have committed minor felonies are currently allowed to apply for the pay to stay initiative – for now. And even then, the term ‘minor’ is pretty loose and because of that no one should be given this quick out. You could be sentenced to a month or 10 years in prison and still be considered for these institutions.

No person is above a prison sentence, of any length, for his or her crimes and it is only right that a person should suffer punishment for their crimes. What happens behind prisons walls should be controlled better, yes, but convicted or soon to be convicted felons should not get to reside in near privacy and have benefits law abiding citizens have.

We live in a time where accepting responsibility is frowned upon, and taking the quick easy way is the popular opinion. It is also a destructive one. Criminals should have to face their punishment in the same environment as the others locked up with them. There cannot be any exceptions and these pay-to-stay institutions should be shut down.

This all comes back to a point I made in an earlier column, dealing with high school students and the lack of responsibility they exhibit at work, which is to simply ignore or to not take the weight of our actions.

What is it that compels us to foolishly allow people to take the easy path in life, when all we are ever taught as we are growing up is that life is hard? That there will be suffering, and if you make a mistake, you have to face the consequences of your actions.

And yet, once they make the mistake we let them off easy. Giving little to no weight to the gravity of their action. To instill a better worldview, and in turn create a better world, we have to be firm in our punishments and beliefs – no matter how tempting the easy way may seem.