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"Crime Doesn't Pay(back)"

The Houston Press this week examined the important issue of victim restitution and discovered that:Across the entire state, 90.3 percent of offenders who were successfully discharged from 2003 to 2008 still owe their victims restitution. Fewer than 10 percent paid off all their restitution. Out of the more than $43 million those discharged parolees were ordered to pay, the parole division only collected 5.3 percent of it, or $2.3 million (see "Bad Debt").Unfortunately, reporter Chris Vogel mostly took his lead in the story from the City of Houston's "crime victims advocate" Andy Kahan, who keeps pretending that it's somehow possible for restitution as ordered to be paid back before the end of an offender's parole term. "It smacks of the ultimate hypocrisy," says Kahan...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on December 07, 2008 (boomark / email).