The government exists to keep us and our stuff safe.

If it's not doing that, it should be eliminated.

Budget cuts are setting convicts free

In L.A. County, 47,000 prisoners were released early last year.

By Daniel B. Wood | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

LOS ANGELES – Every day for the past year, Los Angeles County jail officials, who oversee the largest local jail system in the world, have been releasing prisoners before their sentence is up: as many as 600 in a day, and 47,000 in a year - nearly enough to fill Dodger Stadium.
While the offenders are nonviolent - drunken drivers, shoplifters, car thieves - the early releases have stirred controversy over whether the savings in tax dollars is worth what many see as a threat to public safety. As agencies report drops in violent crime, so-called "quality-of-life" crimes are soaring. To critics, the trend goes hand in hand with weakening deterrence.
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The collective result: far more burglars and convicted drunken drivers back on the streets than lawmakers bargained for.

Looks like time to revive the Hammurabian Code, though we'd have to drop the class distinctions.