Editorial

Making crime pay

Making prisoners pay -- literally -- for the crime they have committed is a concept Missouri embraced in August with a new law allowing counties to create a fund to fight crime.

As a condition of probation or in cases in which the sentence is suspended, the guilty party can be required by judges to pay up to $300 into the County Law Enforcement Restitution Fund.

While some counties across the state are still considering whether to create the fund, Cape Girardeau County's fund already has collected about $3,000 a month since August. None of the money has been spent, but eventually it could pay for drug investigations, equipment or for work done by a county prosecutor.

In 2003, the county brought in $810,000 from housing federal prisoners and prisoners from other counties. How much of that is profit is difficult to calculate since the jail would have to be staffed anyway, but it's certain that housing prisoners from elsewhere is making the $450,000 annual payments on the bonds that financed expansion of the jail.

Cape Girardeau County is making crime pay in the best possible way.

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