"$175,000 per offender? Get-tough sex predator 'treatment' busts state budgets"

That's the headline of this AP story that appeared in yesterday's Cleveland Plain Dealer. Enacting tough-sounding anti-crime laws only to find out a few years later that they are prohibitively expensive and yield few benefits is not exactly new. What makes this story (as well as this update on implementation of the Adam Walsh Act) different is simply the size of the hole policymakers have dug for themselves. It's going to be very difficult to claim "our children" are not safe from sexual predators without this new law and then say "never mind" a few years later when the results come in.

When this sort of thing happens, it is tempting to say that the politicians made their bed and now will have to sleep in it - but the truth is that we taxpayers will be the ones paying for their legislative overreaching. What we need from our legislative leaders is smarter lawmaking that allows for the weighing of costs and benefits before new proposals are enacted.

There is no higher priority than protecting children from dangerous predators. Surely our leaders can find ways to accomplish this goal without further bankrupting the next generation.