Comments on: Federal law enforcement roundup

By: Matt Kaiser

Matt Kaiser — Mon, 26 Oct 2015 20:03:02 +0000

David C, I agree to a point. I think that yes, if people have committed a crime they should be punished and that it looks like the peanut CEO committed a crime. That said, we go too quickly to prison and that’s a problem for white-collar as well as other crimes.

By: Walter Olson

Walter Olson — Mon, 26 Oct 2015 17:17:13 +0000

I agree — Kaiser may also agree, I’m not sure — that the peanut butter case was exceedingly egregious and that supporting prison time for the convicted executive is consistent with the wider opinion that the U.S. criminal justice system overuses prison time in both white-collar and blue-collar crime contexts.

By: David C

David C — Mon, 26 Oct 2015 16:58:31 +0000

Prosecuting corporate executives is something that needs to be decided on a case by case basis. I think the key is to show that the executive was actually the cause of the illegality. It shouldn’t be enough that he simply was the head of a company that did something illegal.

The peanut butter executive was convicted of knowingly shipping food tainted with salmonella. Not just shoddy conditions, not just faking lab results, but actually knowingly shipping food that could – and did – kill people. This deserves prison even if you think the incarceration rate is currently too high, and I don’t see how anyone could disagree. I wouldn’t stop at the executives, either. If the guy who drove the truck knew he was delivering contaminated product, he should also be charged.