http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-06/gina-rinehart-mining-industry-jobs-crime-texas-jails/4940370

Is she for real? 

GINA RINEHART thinks she has the answer for congested prisons: let criminals buy their way out. It is also, as she points out, one way to increase the government’s revenue. She is being true to her beliefs: MONEY IS THE ANSWER TO EVERYTHING.

Never mind that one function of prisons is to rehabilitate, not just punish, offenders. Another is deterrence – a criminal is less likely to reoffend after incarceration. Does Gina not even think that such a scheme could lead to more crime – albeit “non-violent” as she puts it?

Gina makes one distinction: this would be only allowed for ‘non-violent’ criminals,  I guess she means murderers and the like. But anyone convicted of any crime is not fit to be released into the community, in my view, not unless that person shows evidence of remorse and reform. As  Rossleigh Brisbane wrote (http://wp.me/p30D9d-1xR):

Drug dealing, for example, is potentially non-violent. So, after being convicted of selling a large shipment of cocaine to school children, I simply pay my fine and go back to business.

So – no problem at all if you’ve lined your pockets from dodgy dealings a la Bond, Skase or Adler,  but if you’re some poor bugger from skid row — in the cells, mate!