12 days per stolen map...there must be a moral somewhere...

Well, Smiley was sentenced yesterday to 3.5 years and restitution of $1.9MM. Reports on this can be found here (with pictures); here; here; and my personal favorite. I think I agree with Clive Field, director of collections at the British Library, who "grumbled", "That amounts to 12 days in prison for every map stolen. That's not much of a deterrent to other would-be thieves."

He is, most likely annoyed as he is convinced (as am I) that Smiley, while admitting stealing 98 maps, has not admitted to all the thefts he actually committed...just enough to gain himself a light sentence. In the BL's case, Field believes Smiley stole an additional three maps: Smiley visited the library twice and was the only visitor since 1997 who looked through the four albums missing maps. For better or worse, I remain convinced that his "cooperation" was *solely* driven by the fact that he wanted to negotiate the shortest sentence possible...not that he in any way, shape or form regretted his actions (though, I am certain, he regretted dropping an x-acto blade on the floor at Yale.

While still doing law, I had the unfortunate experience of working with a 19 year-old man who, with his brother, grew 104 pot plants in his basement. They were trash plants and for personal use, but because he had over 100 plants, the judge, under a then new law, sentenced him to 5 years, actual time (that is, no good time...five actual years) in a Federal prison. That he was 19 was irrelevant, that he had a merit scholarship to a major university was irrelevant, that neither the judge nor the prosecutor wanted the sentence was irrelevant. Five years and a wasted life over a bunch of skunk week. Smiley stole major pieces from an untold number of institutions, betrayed their trust, betrayed his clients' trust and put into question the intent of all special collection visitors...and got 42 months.

For more general comparison (relatively recent stats): the average prison sentence for drug-trafficking crimes is 83 months; the average for immigration crimes is 27 months; the average for firearms offenses is 58 months; and for theft and fraud, the average is 21 months. I guess one could say, the sentence is higher than the average for theft/fraud...then again, the crime blows the bell curve.

He will spend the next year or so in a nice minimum security facility where he can work on the manuscript for the book that will inevitably emerge...and perhaps his tennis game before being eligible for early release. He will be out, I am certain, long before the full scope of this thefts is known.