Along with some colleagues (Bruce Chapman, Arie Freiburg and David Tait), I’ve been working on the idea of using the tax system to collect fines, thereby making fines a more attractive alternative to good behavior bonds on the one hand, and short prison sentences on the other. We recently published a working paper on the topic, and Ross Gittins gave an excellent summary of our case in today’s SMH. As he says, one way of looking at it is “HECS for criminals”.