The state of Virginia is finding out the hard way that keeping sex offenders off the streets indefinitely is a little more costly than it bargained for. Matter of fact, it's so much more costly than they planned that they're considering privatizing the program.

It's costing the state $97,000 per year per inmate who is civilly committed, and the facility they use for this purpose is running out of room. So they've worked up a plan to double-bunk the already overcrowded facility so they can fit more sex offenders inside.

The inmates who are already committed to the facility have threatened to sue if the state follows through with the plan.

“The conditions here at V.C.B.R. are now deplorable, and to double bunk them would make conditions uninhabitable and miserable” and unconstitutional, six residents wrote to Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and the Associated Press. Especially considering they served their time!

We'll go right ahead and agree that there needs to be a better way to deal with repeat sex offenders than the usual prison-and-release rehabilitation program we've used for so long. But we're not sure locking them up and throwing away the key is the way to go. People keep yelling “Think of the children!” but we are thinking of the children, whose school budgets keep getting cut a little more each year all over the country because of all the thinking of the children we've done.