For two decades now, I've watched the pendulum swing on how Americans treat criminals. Not too long ago, we were in the lock-'em-up-and-throw-away-the-key mode. Some states looked to baseball for solutions. Criminals were given "three strikes" before being thrown out to prison for life. I suppose it would have been too lenient to allow them four downs, as in football, before punting them away.

But the lock-'em-up solution led to the need for more prisons, which led to financial problems. And so, here we are.

It seems terribly wrong to allow wealthier people to pay for luxuries behind bars while the indigent get thrown in with hardened criminals. It seems doubly wrong considering many who pay in California are people convicted of drunken driving, a crime that ranks pretty high on the scale of deadly and irresponsible.

But I can't fault Utah or Cache counties for applying a one-price-fits-all policy. If jailhouse rent is a punishment, it makes sense. Telling rich people they can do easy time does not.

Will it deter crime? Well, the Toledo Blade recently reported on a woman whose job was to collect the rent money from jail inmates in Lucan County, Ohio. She was convicted of embezzling $50,000 and now faces the chance to pay rent of her own. In other words, apparently not.

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Jay Evensen is editor of the Deseret Morning News editorial page. E-mail: even@desnews.com