Steal and be very ashamed

A young woman sentenced to walk a downtown sidewalk wearing a sandwich board announcing her crime as a condition of her probation for burglary said the experience was humbling and humiliating, but definitely better than serving jail time.

"I understand the judge's reasoning," said Breanna Klewitz, 23, of her two-hour walk on a sidewalk in front of the Dougherty County Courthouse, Georgia, wearing signs that read, "I am a thief" and "I stole what you worked for."

"If you do something wrong, you have to accept some responsibility," she said. "Sitting in a jail cell does provide anonymity. I wish the world didn't have to know me by face and by name. But I understand his reasoning.

Chief Superior Court Judge Loren Gray sentenced Klewitz to five-years probation as a first offender for her role in a June burglary at a local fast-food restaurant, where she worked as an assistant manager. Besides a $US1086 ($1376) fine, the judge ordered her to make signs with 8-inch letters, visible from at least 25 feet, and wear them while walking the block-long sidewalk along a busy downtown street.

One of her co-defendants, Jerry Brantley, 22, was sentenced to three years in prison, and another, Trever Moore, 19, received the same sentence as Klewitz. The date for Moore's walk of shame has not been announced.

Klewitz said she was amazed at the words of encouragement from passers-by during her two-hour walk on Wednesday.

"They said, 'Hang in there,' 'We're praying for you,'" she said. "The only thing I could think of is, rather this than jail. It's definitely made me a better judge of character and who I hang out with."

Gray said he wants people who steal to know that their crimes will be exposed. Sending defendants like Klewitz to jail for the weekend, allows them to escape public scrutiny and is a burden on taxpayers, he said.

"I used to do this rather regularly, particularly with shoplifters," the judge said. "Having to announce it to all the world in front of the courthouse is better to me than sending them to jail on weekends.

"This particular sentence imposes a brief period of shame, indignity, whatever you will," he said. "Rather than incarceration, this is a better way of molding attitudes and shaping mind-set."

Gray said he believes the sentence he gave Klewitz is probably most effective in smaller cities like Albany, where people are more likely to know each other.

"I know of a couple of other judges who have employed this," he said. "I think it probably works best in the smaller jurisdictions like ours. I don't think it would work well in Atlanta, where there's little chance of media coverage. In a small community, I think it's more damming than sending someone off to prison."

Judges in other parts of the country have also handed out sentences that included public humiliation.

In Springfield, Massachusetts, last year, a city employee who swindled the school system, had to wear a sign stating, "I stole $10,000 from the school department. This is a serious crime. This is part of my punishment."

A former softball coach in McCook, Nebraska, opted last year to repay money he was accused of stealing, rather stand outside a ballpark wearing a sign that said, "I stole from the McCook Rebels softball team."