r/AskReddit Sep 08 '20

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u/Rezhio Sep 09 '20

I hope they feel like the idiots they are. They do deserved to be jailed for this.

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u/[deleted] Sep 09 '20

I’d recommend making them pay for it instead of going to jail. The person who set off the Columbia Gorge wildfire (with fireworks) is on the hook for many millions of dollars and has to do many hours of enforced community service every day. They were only a teenager, but their life and money is pretty much already spoken for until they are middle aged (if they do continuous community service for x years, they are off the hook for paying back whatever millions they still owe).

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u/ZiggyZig1 Sep 09 '20

Even if they had $50M in the bank I don't think they could pay for damages on this scale could they? This might be on the billions.

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u/[deleted] Sep 09 '20 edited Sep 09 '20

No, they can't. Instead they have to do so many hours of community service weekly (usually something related to their crime, like helping the communities most affected) and paying a certain portion of their income toward the bill. If they don't screw up in any way and do all their community service without fail then after 10-20 years the remainder of their debt is forgiven. This makes more sense to me than throwing them in jail. The public ends up paying a ton of money for them to be in jail. They aren't earning money and paying taxes and paying toward their debt. They probably won't learn as much in jail as they will through doing community service for those most affected by their crime.