Yesterday, taxpayers started shelling tax dollars to incarcerate former State Senator Chuck Chvala who is clearly not a risk to the community.

The entire concept of prison is to keep the public safe and to punish the accused, but this is a case where not only is Chvala being punished but the taxpayers are also.

Republicans usually like to scream about government waste yet they’re the biggest spenders when it comes to prisons, incarceration, road buildings, the military and a few other choice items.

Chvala may have been convicted for using his office to raise money for people in his own party (dem) but Republicans Steve Foti, Bonnie Ladwig and Scott Jensen did the same thing. Although Chvala, Foti and Ladwig chose not to run again. Jensen flicked the voters the bird when he said he would run and Waukesha voters actually put him back into office.

Jensen’s case comes up soon and it would make sense for his sentence to be at least as harsh as Chvala’s since it sounds like he did more wrongdoing than did Chvala. This is not to say that Jensen is a danger to the community — he is not. However, a Jensen incarceration and sentence equal to Chvala’s would send a message that justice is blind — blind to partisanship and blind to outside influences like the blantantly partisan talk radio.