Ed Jew is headed to jail. Again.Actually, Jew, the former San Francisco Supervisor, won’t start serving his sentence until July 1, when he is scheduled to surrender to police. The one-year jail sentence Jew received Wednesday, for lying about living in San Francisco when he ran for Supervisor in 2006, adds an additional year to the five-years-four-months he is sentenced to spend in federal prison for extortion.
Jew’s extortion conviction stemmed from an FBI sting in 2007. FBI surveillance video captured footage of Jew accepting $40,000 from the owner of a fast food restaurant in Jew’s district. The money was half of an $80,000 bribe Jew admitted to demanding from the District 4 business owner. In exchange for the cash, Jew promised his help in smoothing out the restaurant’s permitting issues.
With two convictions for what amounts to unethical behavior, Jew’s reputation as an upstanding citizen or honorable civic leader is shot. He deserves to be punished for abusing the power of his position and assaulting the public’s trust. But, logically, sending Jew to jail for up-to six years (though he’ll likely only serve four, at most) makes little fiscal sense.
Traditionally, in the U.S., removing individuals from society—the adult version of a “time-out”—is how we punish those who violate societal rules. Yet, this time-out technique is costly and teaches little to improve the character or societal contributions of the incarcerated. Those locked-up by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, in the U.S., cost taxpayers, in 2001 [the last date for which data was available], $22,632 per inmate, per day. If Jew served even six years of his initial sentence, his incarnation would cost taxpayers well over $100,000—twenty thousand more than the $80,000 the FBI caught Jew exhorting from the restaurant owner.
Jew’s lawyer complained about the harsh nature of the charges: "Between the federal and state systems, this punishment is serious. Most politicians don't receive sentences like this." He’s right; usually politicians get off with a slap on the wrist. And in that light this is a serious sentence, but mail fraud, bribery and extortion are serious crimes. Still, Jew will spend most of his time in the sort of facility where Martha Stewart spent a few months, on a so-called federally sponsored vacation – and possibly another eight months in country jail.
What’s the point of jailing Jew? To teach Jew a lesson for a crime he won't likely have the opportunity to commit again, even after serving his sentence? Why spend the money incarcerating a non-violent offender?
Maybe he should experience what it’s like not to have recourse to hot water or consistent electricity and live surrounded by garbage. Who is he to judge? No water use, garbage activity or power showed up for the Sunset District house where Jew claimed he lived when her ran for Supervisor.
Let’s slap a tracking bracelet on the ousted-supervisor and relegate him to pay his debt to society by serving his time in a shelter or one of the city’s single-resident-occupancy hotels. Make him spend the next five years volunteering in the neighborhood he represented, but never lived. His lesson may be long, but it should not be unnecessarily costly.
