Just Think of the Incentive Effects!Gain Weight, Get Early Parole

My older son, David Ricardo Palmer, sent me this link last week:

Canadian prisoner, too fat for cell,

released early

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian prison authorities were forced to release a 450-pound (205 kg) drug gang member this week because he was too large for his cell, the Journal de Montreal newspaper reported on Wednesday.                         

Michel Lapointe -- known as Big Mike -- was arrested in September 2006 and received a five-year sentence in May this year. The paper said he could not fit on the chair in his Montreal prison cell and when he went to bed, his body protruded six inches on either side.

A letter from the authorities to Lapointe said: "You have been detained for more than 25 months and your prison conditions are difficult because of your health".

The authorities also cited the refusal of two other facilities to accept the 37-year-old. He was freed late on Tuesday.

I was delighted with the questions that my son raised about the article:

1. How can a man be in jail for over two years and STILL weigh over 450 pounds?
2. How many other inmates will now seek to gain enough weight that they, too, will be set free?

As we keep emphasizing, people respond to incentives, and policy changes alter people's behaviour by altering the incentives they face.

Comments

[Rondi]

I saw this article last week and the same questions came to my mind. Also, how many really fat people who have toyed with the idea of committing a crime will now say, "what the heck?" and go for it?

[Rebekah K]

Ahhhh. I now have a new career path. Supersize me! :-)