Prison: The Choice Of New Criminals

Who would voluntarily choose to go to prison? It turns out quite a few people.

On Oct. 11, a Columbus, Ohio, man robbed a bank for the sole purpose of going to prison. The Associated Press reported that Timothy Bowers entered the bank and handed a teller a note demanding cash in an envelope. The teller gave him four $20 bills and pushed a silent alarm. Bowers then handed the money to a security guard standing in the lobby and told him it was his day to be a hero.

Bowers asked Judge Angela White for a three-year prison sentence and she obliged. Bowers, who is 63, reasoned that prison was easier than working, claiming, “At my age, the jobs available to me are minimum-wage jobs.”

Bowers isn