Why Jailing Pinkberry Co-Founder Is A Bad Investment For California

Young Lee co-founded the popular Pinkberry frozen yogurt chain in Los Aneles in 2005. This

South Korean kick boxer went through periods as a drug addict and was once homeless. He turned things around, becoming an architect, and eventually a business man. He left the popular dessert chain in 2010 with millions.

Viciously beat a homeless man with a tire iron in Los Angeles after the victim flashed him and his car passengers, including his fiancé, a suggestive tattoo of stick figures having sex. Lee had priors before the incident for cocaine possession and possession of a loaded weapon.

He did own illegal weapons after having a prior charge, which is alarming. Lee also threatened the a witness' life and family during the trial. However, it's more of what we don't know, including his potential for instability, temporary insanity, and what other things clicked (or maybe click often) in his head before making violent decisions that may be out of his control. Going back and attacking Daniel Bolding, breaking his forearm and giving him several cuts on the head, doesn't seem like something a sane person would do. While some might say, including the prosecution, that it shows a disgusting sense of entitlement to take up violence against another because of a harmless act of disrespect, it's safe to say placing Lee behind bars for seven years isn't going to change the core of his being. It's not going to take someone with violent thoughts and turn him around. It's in all likelihood going to bitter him, not better him. If he was a threat to the community before, just see how he feels about violence and an entitlement to commit it after prison.

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A sentence of seven years without parole for beating a panhandling homeless man is serve when considering that only four of his years are for the assault, with the three additional years tacked on for the injuries Bolding sustained. While the act was atrocious, the injuries were not serve. After healing, Bolding's life quality of life has not worsened. In fact, it's due to get better if you include the restitution he's likely to get form Lee. With 85 percent of his sentence left to serve at an annual cost of $47,102 for incarcerating an inmate in California, that's $280, 256.90 the state will be dolling out for Lee. That's over a quarter million dollars wasted on someone who would probably benefit much more from the somewhat cheaper alternative of intense inpatient psychiatric treatment for two years. Perhaps Lee could have set an example for change, and part of his rehabilitation could have included volunteering at local homeless shelters. Instead, the state of California took the very uncreative route of locking up another individual prone to violence with a bunch of other individuals prone to violence.