The sentencing of the actress Felicity Huffman at least momentarily generated a lot of press coverage. How would you have sentenced her?  Doug Berman has this post at Sentencing Law and Policy, collecting commentary and adding this wise thought of his own:

I continue to be disappointed at our system’s and our society’s general failure to treat and view any sentencing terms other than imprisonment as “real punishment.” Of course, most persons subject to any form of criminal investigation and prosecution will report that the process itself is very often a significant punishment and so too can be any period of supervision and the array of collateral consequences (both formal and informal and often lifetime) that always accompany a criminal conviction. But, problematically, the perception persists that anything other than prison, and often anything less than a lengthy period in prison, is but a trifle.