IT'S A FAIR COPA; Judges have given criminals some bizarre sentences... like listening to Manilow's hits.

Byline: By Lisa Adams

TALK about making the punishment fit the crime. A US judge is forcing noisy neighbours to listen to the hits of Barry Manilow.

Colorado magistrate Paul Sacco is the latest law-enforcer who thinks that giving offenders a taste of their own medicine is the best way to make them pay.

The judge orders anti-social citizens to sit in a room while hits by crooner Manilow, including Mandy and Copacabana, are played over and over. Four times a year, they troop into a room and endure one hour of songs from Manilow and Barney, the purple dinosaur.

The judge dreamed up this novel form of punishment after becoming fed up with seeing the same faces before him paying a fine, only to return months later.

Sacco said: "They should have to listen to music they don't like."

The punishment would not work on everyone, though. Sacco freely admitted: "I actually like the Barry Manilow stuff."

It may not have caught on in the UK yet but a whistle-stop tour through US courts reveals creative sentencing, such as Sacco's, can be a controversial but surprisingly effective way of making offenders think twice.

Here's our pick of some of the most eyebrow-raising ways judges have named and shamed.

BILLBOARD JUSTICE

Alabama shoplifter Lisa Fithian, 46, chose a novel alternative to 60 days in jail - standing for four hours on two Saturdays in a row wearing a sandwich board which said: "I am a thief. I stole from Wal-Mart."

Judge Kenneth Robertson claimed shaming offenders was the best way to stop them doing it again.

He said: "I just watch the theft rate come down, and the reaction of the public is that this is a great thing.

"When I punish people like this, I watch them hang their heads in shame. You can see that it has a bigger impact than jailing them."

AWAY TO KILL SPEED

Drunk driver Michael Hubacek was sentenced to stand beside one of Houston's busiest roads wearing the sign: "I killed two people while driving drunk."

The 17-year-old had gone on a rum, beer and vodka binge before crashing his car into a van at almost 100mph. The driver and a passenger were killed.

Hubacek also served six months in jail, three months in offenders' boot camp and had to carry the victims' pictures in his wallet for 10 years.

As well as being banned from driving for 10 years, Hubacek also had to sit in on the post mortem of a drink-driving accident victim and contribute to a memorial fund.

Houston judge Ted Poe claimed the re-offending rates in his court were 20 per cent compared with the US national average of 50 per cent.

Poe said: "People do not like to be held up to public ridicule.

It's embarrassing. It deters bad behaviour and it works."

POLITENESS PAYS

Two neds were ordered to walk down the main street of their home town in women's clothing for being rude to women and throwing beer bottles at a car.

Jason Householder, 23, and John Stockum, 21, could have served 60 days in jail but took the humiliating option instead.

Ohio judge David Hostetler ordered them to dress "demurely".

He said: "We're not doing the bikini top and thong. It's got to be a dress and it has to be respectful."

During the offenders' hour-long parade in October 2001, a man threw abottle at the pair and was arrested.

A big fan of creative sentencing, Hostetler once made vandals, who had smashed pounds 15,000 worth of windows, auction their possessions to pay for the damage.

When hooligans were caught throwing eggs, Hostetler ordered them to write "I will not throw eggs"

1000 times. And speeding motorists are made to write essays as part of their punishment.

LEARNING TO RELAX

A defendant who admitted hitting his wife on New Year's Eve had an unusual extra added to his sentence.

In January 2004, Judge Larry Standley, of Harris County, Texas, ordered him to attend yoga classes.

Standley hoped the combination of traditional punishment and a mind and bodystretching yoga class would help the man control his behaviour.

And, he said, it certainly couldn't hurt. And people convicted of domestic violence or fighting by Judge Frances Gallegos, in Santa Fe, are often sentenced to a twice-a-week, anger management class.

The court lobby is transformed with candles, mirrors and aromatherapy while offenders experience tai chi, meditation, acupuncture and Eastern philosophy to help control rage.

BIRD BRAINS

Judge Mike Erwin, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was one of the first fans of creative sentencing after it took off in the Nineties.

Keen to make people reflect on their actions, Erwin asked four college students who stole an exotic bird from a pet store: "How did anyone think this was a good idea?"

After none of them answered, he fined them and made them write "I will not do stupid things" 2500 times, plus an essay.

Erwin said: "We've got so many problems with poverty, education and drugs.

"We'll never get to the root of the problem. I just try to grab at some of the ones who are sinking and try to save them."

DESIGNER DISGRACE

Kids in juvenile court for shoplifting in North Carolina face being banned from wearing their favourite designer labels, such as Polo and Tommy Hilfiger, as part of their punishment.

BABY LOVE

Judge Howard Broadman, of California's Tulare County Court, convicted Darlene Johnson, a pregnant mother of four, of beating two of her daughters with a belt and an electrical cord.

To avoid prison, Johnson agreed to the judge's request to have a long-lasting contraceptive implanted in her arm.

The judge said it was his duty to protect her unconceived children.

CAPTION(S):

REPTILE ROCK: Barney the dinosaur; Picture: REUTERS

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Publication:	Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland)
Date:	Nov 26, 2008
Words:	965
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