A few weeks ago a local jury found Basim Sabri, a businessman that developed several buildings in South Minneapolis, guilty of bribery. This trial reminds us of how important it is to fight corruption and why. In our countries in Latin America we have experienced many cases of corruption. Recently, some of these cases have resulted in ex-presidents and other political figures being sentenced to jail.

Corruption causes a lot of damage to society. Latin America has suffered for centuries from incestuous relationships between corrupt governments that maintain their power thanks to the money of corrupt businesses and businesses that maintain a monopoly because the government supports them. This negatively affects any efforts at effective economic development. An economy cannot grow without a healthy environment for small businesses.

Small businesses give opportunity to people of limited resources to advance economically, and supply the majority of new jobs in an economy. Bribing and corruption create poverty, hunger, and the loss of opportunity to escape from the hunger and poverty. The corruption gives special advantages to those who bribe and disadvantages to those who are honest.

Recently, we saw an example of this type of corruption in Minneapolis. The FBI cracked down on this corruption by sentencing two members of the Minneapolis City Council, Brian Herron and Joe Biernat, to a year and to a year and a half in prison. It’s very important to punish corruption. But, sometimes, the judicial system overreacts on its good intentions of fighting corruption.

Brian Herron’s jail sentence was probably insufficient. This man went to several businessmen, usually immigrants, to ask them for money. But, one year and a half in prison for Joe Biernat? Isn’t a year and a half for receiving plumbing work from a plumber that does business with the city a bit of an overreaction? Basim Sabri faces a possible sentence of three to five years. Selwin Ortega hasn’t received any publicly known punishment for bribing.

Joe Biernat, Selwin Ortega and Basim Sabri should all be punished. But what is the best way to punish them so that we have a just system that punishes corruption but at the same time we can have space in jail for violent criminals?

Maybe Joe Biernat should not be allowed to hold a public office ever again. He should have maybe spent some time under house arrest. But a year and a half in prison? Especially when there isn’t enough space in the prisons for those convicted of murder or rape? Same with Selwin Ortega: He should give some of his fortune to an economic development fund as a penalty for what he did, and some type criminal penalty. Maybe not jail but some type of punishment. If there was a penalty, it should be made public, to serve as a deterrent to others.

The same should happen with Basim Sabri. Maybe he should be punished with a big fine set aside for some type economic development fund, destined to immigrant owned businesses, and maybe some type of criminal penalty. But three to five years? Who would benefit from Basim Sabri occupying a cell that would better be used to imprison a murderer? If he donated a million dollars to an economic development fund, wouldn’t that be a punishment and at the same time help the community usually hurt the most by corruption? While Basim Sabri assures us that none of his 200 Latino business tenants will suffer if he were put in prison, it worries us that someone as key as Sabri to the survival of his business would better serve the community managing his business than spending the next three to five years in prison. What will happen to the 200 Latino businesses? Let’s continue to fight corruption but let’s use common sense.