By Matt Friedeman
July 15, 2005

(AgapePress) - First phone caller to my talk radio program didn't think Bernie Ebbers should go to jail, but be executed.

The caller had lost $3,000 in stock. He was a tad upset.

The former WorldCom boss, sentenced to 25 years in prison Wednesday for his role in the largest corporate fraud in this nation's history, could potentially get out in 2027, when he is 85, for good behavior. More likely, he will die in prison.

Taxpayers, many of whom lost thousands, some hundreds of thousands, in WorldCom stock now must pay to feed, clothe, and house Ebbers as well as pay his dental and medical bills (the latter of which should be formidable since he already has a number of physical maladies, including a weakening heart).

If America's judicial system understood punishment, restoration and restitution (Christian principles, all), maybe something like the following could have happened:

• Acknowledged that Mr. Ebbers is of no danger to society.
• Made him live the rest of his life in his wife's home at his own expense having liquidated all his assets (including those yachts and mansions). An ankle bracelet such as Martha Stewart has worn, which could keep him inside his front door, would undoubtedly fit nicely.
• Required him to come up with some honest business from said domestic headquarters by which he could help repay those who lost their life savings in the WorldCom debacle.
• Ensured that all bills related to his punishment be incurred by him. All profits over and above his basic living expenses would go to pay restitution.

Instead, Ebbers goes off to jail to die. And we pay his expenses. And a vast amount of human potential rots away.

This country is a long way from devising sentences that take real justice to heart. Until we do, however, we only hurt ourselves. And, in this case, we destroy Ebbers, a man who could still contribute much, given the opportunity.

I am from Mississippi, like Mr. Ebbers. This gives me two advantages -- it helps me see (like few other states could to the same extent) the jails that are already letting really dangerous guys go because the facilities are too full of others who are non-violent and who probably shouldn't be there if alternative sentencing were taken seriously.

And secondly, I have seen Mr. Ebbers in full glory through local functions and through media coverage and have lost a bit of money on WorldCom myself. Now, he may be a crook although, testimony notwithstanding, I really doubt it. Even so, personally I have no gushing feelings him; in fact, he once hurled an epithet my way before a wealthy crowd in our community because he didn't agree with an opinion piece I had written. My feelings for Ebbers, based on a little closer geographical experience than others, are not warm and fuzzy.

But now, instead of his paying his debt, we have to pay his bills. Nothing is restored. And some people are feeling strangely vindicated.

And that is a crime.