It's public, not Hastert that requires no prison time for his white collar crime

The Trib Sunday editorial 'Hastert deserves prison, not probation' for his white collar crime of illegally structuring bank withdrawals to avoid bank reporting requirements, utterly fails to justify its lust to slam Hastert in the the slammer for five years. All the hundreds of words detailing the sad, sordid story of Hastert's sexual molestation of wrestling students decades ago have nothing to do with wasting around $150,000 in taxpayer money to get 'revenge' for Hastert's ancient conduct which, though egregious, is not the crime for which he's being sentenced. None of the factors requiring prison apply to Hastert. He's no threat to the public and incapable of repeat criminality. Prison does nothing to punish him beyond the punishment of disgrace and banishment from society already incurred. Prison will serve as no deterrent to sick individuals willingly risking self destruction to further their criminal sexual obsessions. His greatly impaired medical condition makes his imprisonment an utter travesty of 'piling on' in righteous indignation. Granting probation to a failing septuagenarian has nothing to do with mercy or recognizing his decades of contributions to his community, his state, his nation. Hastert wouldn't deserve prison for the crime for which he's being sentenced if he had been a scoundrel his entire life. The only question to be answered is simply this: Is any societal purpose being served by spending $30,000 a year to imprison an end of life person for a white collar crime when he poses no threat to public. Any decent, fair minded person would unquestionably say 'Absolutely not.' If the Trib Editorial Board is so anxious to see Hastert stagger into a prison van for the trip to the hoosegow, they should take up a collection amongst themselves and like minded revenge seekers to pay for their exercise in societal folly.