Lenient Sentence For Sisters Who Stole From USPS: No Jail

An interesting read. I guess stealing from the US Postal Service is not a serious enough crime to warrant jail time.

http://wivb.com/2014/09/04/no-jail-...e-from-usps/

It does make you wonder how many of these crimes go unreported, as I would have thought it would have been a Federal offense to steal from the USPS and those convicted would have to face a tougher sentence, but I guess that's not the case these days.

I would guess there were extenuating circumstances - such as no conclusive evidence of guilt. Or maybe the costs to prosecute and incarcerate far exceeded the losses. We might conclude that - with restitution - (and we assume dismissal) justice was served.

From the above article:



I'd call that punishment to fit the crime.

Still the USPS is missing money and also lawyer and investigation fees.

Kind of warns other employees.

It would be a Federal crime, but might also fall under state theft laws. If the Federal prosecutor decides that it isn't worth his expense to prosecute, the state could do so. I once sat on a jury for a kidnapping case...although that is a Federal crime, this case was held in a state court, for violation of a state law. I guess the Federal prosecutor had bigger fish to fry.

As the USPS is considered a private organization rather than a government agency, and the theft was directly from the USPS rather than from the mail itself (like stealing checks from letters)...it's possible that this didn't fit neatly into Federal jurisdiction. I'm really not sure of the boundary.

The USPS is under Federal Criminal statute, thus Federal prosecution. The arrests are made by USPS Inspectional Service officers, with assist from US Marshals (& FBI Agents if large enough issue) and if needed local or State law enforcement. The accused are tried in federal courts by the US Prosecutor/Attorney. When tried the conviction rates are in the 95%+ conviction range. As some of the article comments state, the costs to incarcerate would exceed the restitute gained. This goes on their criminal record as a conviction so rather than the tax payer foot the larger bill for care in s federal institution they opted for restitution, criminal record and saving taxpayer money (supporting the incarceration). Small crime small time.