A Capital Idea for Restitution, Not Retribution

The current justice system clearly does not work. When you have people committing crimes to get into jail because that is the only way they can get medical care, something is obviously wrong. I am opposed to capital punishment (i.e., the death penalty) but not corporal punishment (e.g., caning - what a great idea!) and certainly not to chain gangs. Why should life in jail be all cable TV and weightlifting? I have an idea for an all-new system of justice, based on restitution rather than retribution. After all, what does anyone gain by killing a person who killed a person, other than a sense of vengeance? Why not put the murderer to work instead? And by "work" I mean HARD LABOR at the rate of $9/hour. (This could be adjusted for inflation as needed.)

Here is a comparison of the current system and my system:

White Collar Criminals
Now: stuck in a country club they can't leave, then they get out and still have that $20 million they embezzled stashed in some Swiss bank account
Mine: put their rich white patooties to work with everyone else! They can go free when they've paid back the $20 million, or when they die, whichever comes first

Murderers
Now: "Life," which means maybe 10 years, or the death penalty
Mine: they will spend the rest of their natural lives working to support the family of the person they killed, as well as their own family

Wrong Person Convicted
Now: Oops... our bad. (Double oops if they were executed.)
Mine: They would be released with all the money they had worked to earn over the years. This would come from the infraction pool (see below) and the salary of the lawyers who had them put away - that will keep prosecutors from just trying to get someone convicted and DAs from being lazy

Early Release
Now: for good behavior
Mine: for working overtime and paying off your debt to society... literally!

Bad Behavior
Now: lose TV privileges
Mine: 20c/hour deducted for each infraction

After Prison
Now: no good prospects, so high recidivism rates, which leads to suspicion of all ex-cons
Mine: after all those years of working, they would have marketable skills (at least in the hard labor market)

Added bonus: if you are one of those anti-immigration wackos who think Mexicans are crawling over the border at the rate of 3,000/minute to steal our American jobs, you should LOVE my plan! After all, if we have convicts doing the jobs nobody else wants to do, they won't be available for Mexicans to take. This would stop the flow of illegal immigrants almost as quickly as our currently stalled economy seems to have done.

Famous Hat