Kicker: Suds and reparations

NICK EICHER, HOST: Some judges are no-nonsense. Others, law-and-order—the kind who’ll throw the book at you. But one judge in a Michigan town says, you shoplift, I’ll throw the bucket at you.

Soap, water, and sponge too.

Judge Jeffrey Clothier is sentencing misdemeanor shoplifters to weekends washing cars in the Walmart parking lot this spring.

The idea is to make offenders think twice about a life of crime—while giving back to the very shoppers paying the price for retail theft.

It all seems win-win: cleaner cars for the public … scrubbed rap sheets for the perps. What’s not to like?

Walmart says it’ll supply the soap and water. As for the judge? He’s not just handing down sentences—he’ll be hand-washing right alongside.

So there’s a fresh take on crime and punishment—where the guilty wash away their debt.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

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