Why Put the Crook in Jail?

God knows, I wasn't going to write about Madoff and the fact that he has been sentenced to 150 years in jail. In fact, I was going to return to the pile of absolutely amazing books I plan to be reading and blogging about until the end of summer.

And then I read one more blog post claiming that Madoff's sentence is somehow unfair. This is what Alec Baldwin says at Huffington post: "Madoff got 150 years? Why?
Does that serve the greater good? Does that really contribute to solving the problems that stemmed from Madoff's misdeeds? I want to suggest, as I am confident others have, that Madoff be given a reduced sentence in exchange for answering every question that investigators ask regarding how he did what he did and what are his recommendations for how this might be detected and/or prevented in the future." If it were only Baldwin, I wouldn't care. But I have read over a dozen blogs and articles recently that were saying the exact same thing.

The whole discussion about why we need to put a criminal in jail is baffling in the extreme. Let's try and imagine that the same rhetoric is being disseminated about a serial killer who managed to kidnap and murder 30 people. Would any one suggest that the killer be given a reduced sentence "in exchange for answering every question that investigators ask regarding how he did what he did and what are his recommendations for how this might be detected and/or prevented in the future"? Or is it ok to do this with some crimes and not with others?

I just don't understand why people suddenly feel so much compassion towards this vile crook? He committed a crime, he has been sentenced to jail, let's lock him up and throw away the key instead of feeling sorry for him.