(update) Young men jailed in UK for painting trains, citizens are outraged

UPDATE:

The judges at the Court of Appeal decided each should receive a two-year conditional discharge. They have served two months of their original sentences.

Their prison sentences prompted protests by their parents and a petition on the social networking website Facebook.

Five-year Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (Asbos) were also quashed by Mr Justice Grigson sitting with Lord Justice Latham and Mr Justice Aikens in London. They said the Asbos were "inappropriate" because the graffiti was not threatening or offensive.

The "positive features" in their cases should also have persuaded the original trial judge a community sentence was the appropriate punishment, said Mr Justice Grigson.

Mers (18) and Krek (20) got thrown in jail (in a police station, since the prisons are full) in Manchester England. Their sentences are 12 and 15 months.

You can see in the [original] article comments that reasonable adults in the area think these sentences are ridiculously harsh. And no wonder. It doesn't make any sense to put kids in jail for nonviolent offenses. Not for the kids and not for the society. At least one of these guys is a first offender also.

But in any country, it's easiest to jail people who can't afford good legal help and to let rich celebrities and white-collar criminals who actually endanger other people's lives go free after token jail visits. Blind justice indeed. We need to reform the stupid policies that result in such society-harming results.

I hope the UK citizens will continue to condemn this sort of destructive sentencing and work to free these kids. Nonviolent first offenders need to be sent to school and to work, not to jail. Otherwise, England risks becoming a prison state like the USA, where more than 2 million people are in prison, a large proportion of which are in for nonviolent and victimless offenses such as drug possession.