“The punishment should fit the crime” is a cliché that was popular years ago, but seems to have disappeared from today’s conversations on justice.
Usually, a penalty is attached to the creation of a new law, but occasionally it’s either ignored or set so low that it becomes a gnat in the cost of doing business.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources fined an Eastern Iowa farmer $5,000 because he changed his swine Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) from pigs to a cattle feedlot operation without first obtaining a permit to do so. His excuse – he “didn’t know” he needed a new permit. The farmer agreed to pay the $5,000 penalty and to apply for a construction permit amendment. Be assured that the construction permit will be approved by the DNR. If the $5,000 fine had been a deterrent, the farmer would have ditched the plan to convert.
The Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board is attempting to reel in thousands of dollars in fines levied against candidates that have gone unpaid. Candidates’ responses include: “I didn’t know” or “the process of filing” reports is “riddled with technical difficulties.” However, media reports seem not to follow up on whether candidates are ponying up their financial responsibilities, making the value of a potential deterrent nothing more than political capital.
Fareway Stores refuse to accept can and bottles for redemption “to minimize potential harm to the communities we serve.” Never mind that the law specifically requires the corporation to accept redeemable containers. But according to Iowa’s former Attorney General, there is no penalty for flouting the law on bottle and can redemption. Moreover, the company does not have to employ another person to maintain bottle and can redemption services, the purchase or rental of automatic recycling machines, nor provide space for redeemed recyclables. Each of those factors add up to a windfall for Fareway. As it is with many corporate decisions, the spin is in front, the reality is in the rear. Savings is the bottom line.
POET Bioprocessing, a bioethanol company based in South Dakota, has been fined the maximum administrative penalty of $10,000 by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources for ongoing violations involving failure to maintain equipment that has led to air pollution at its Iowa Falls plant, resulting in “repeatedly” emitting harmful chemicals. Recently, POET has reported $8 billion in annual revenue. The fine amounts to one-tenth of a one percent bite into the company’s profit. That’s comparable to a person earning $50,000 a year being fined two-tenths of one cent for a speeding violation. Is it any wonder why POET didn’t appeal the fine? It’s the cost of doing business.
Some penalties exist for the pure political posturing of elected officials. House File 595 increases the penalties for certain crimes involving fentanyl, sometimes doubling the prison term. Although fentanyl can be a dangerous street drug, increasing penalties to combat the manufacture, sale, and distribution of the drug is a politically practical solution that has extraordinarily little value as a deterrent. The real autocracy in the governor signing the bill is her statement where she “blamed the Biden administration’s handling of the U.S.-Mexico border for the influx of fentanyl-laced pills.”
Anyone who believes fentanyl is being smuggled into the U.S. by individuals stashing pills into their pockets does not have a perception of reality. According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, fentanyl is “smuggled through official border crossings, often in vehicles driven by U.S. citizens.” But Iowa’s governor wants you to believe that it is Hispanic immigrants that are to blame for the infusion of dangerous drugs in America, and especially Iowa.
Some laws fail to provide any sort of penalty. For instance, State Representative Bobby Kaufmann (R-Wilton) introduced a bill (House File 716) as Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee that requires a person participating in the political caucus to be physically present at the caucus. So, the question arises, what will the penalty be if the Iowa Democratic Party proceeds with its plan to retain “the mail-in provision in its new plan” for the 2024 caucuses? Since there is no penalty at the state level, the otherwise brilliant political tactic created by Rep. Kaufmann becomes moot.
It all comes down to this. Deterrence does not work in all cases. If money is involved, the deterrent value is equal to the cost of doing business. A decision to comply with a penalty is recommended by the legal department of a corporation discussing the potential results with the accounting department and submitting the exhortation to upper-level management to decide as to whether “the punishment fits the crime.”
Sort of makes you wonder if the slight penalties in statutes that affect the wealthy and corporations are soft on white collar crime.
*** This article first appeared in The Prairie Progressive‘s Summer edition ***
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