Timtimes gave a link to a story from the St. Petersburg Times that is incredible. Read on

On Friday morning, Joseph Prudente put on a pair of shorts and his “Grandpa Gone Wild” T-shirt. He took off his wedding band and put his heart medication in a plastic Wal-Mart bag. Then his daughter drove him to jail. Grandpa had time to do.

His crime? He had disobeyed a court order that he sod the lawn at his Beacon Woods home.

And get this…NO BAIL! Yes, sorry Grandpa, we can’t have you running around willy nilly in the streets while that brown lawn of yours exits. We have to protect our law abiding citizens, so it’s indefinate jail time for you. Whew! Glad I can finally walk the streets in St. Pete’s again.  What is happening to American values?? How can you jail this man with NO BAIL for a brown lawn? What a despicable thing to do. I realize the law is the law…but NO BAIL? NO BAIL??? Is it legal to put someone in jail without the opportunity to bail out? Rapists and murders receive more humane treatment than this. The American dream is becoming a nightmare.  

Prudente, 66, must stay in the Pasco County jail in Land O’Lakes until the required sod work is completed, under a September court order signed by Circuit Judge W. Lowell Bray.

“He’s in prison for God knows how long because we can’t afford to sod the lawn,” said his sobbing daughter, Jennifer Lehr.

In an interview at the jail Friday evening, Prudente said he thought he had made a good financial hardship case to the association: His adjustable rate mortgage went up an extra $600 a month. Wachovia repossessed his Toyota Scion. His daughter and her two young children, who had fallen on hard times, moved in with him and his wife, Pat.

I hope the family can organize a fund in his name and get some donations to help sod their brown lawn. I can’t imagine going to jail for something like this, especially not being able to get bailed out. What kind of law keeps folks in jail as long as their lawn is brown? Is there a lawyer in the house that could explain the legalities?