There was applause and whoops from some in the crowd Monday at the sentencing hearing of swindler extrordinaire Bernard Madoff. U.S. District Judge Denny Chin sentenced Madoff to 150 years in prison for a staggering fraud that took a toll on thousands of victims, including many charities.

The taxpayer in me neither clapped nor whopped at the life sentence handed down by the judge. It strikes me that the Madoff plea agreement only means to most of us one more prisoner in the system. Simply put, we have one more U.S. citizen behind bars at approximately $27,000 per year - plus health care for life. In addition to the financial cost, we as a people, have the moral responsibility for the total safety and care of yet another human being as we separate that person from society.

At first blush it seems that the prosecutors in this case didn't break much of a sweat in sending Madoff off to prison. Although he admitted his guilt, Madoff has said little about the fraud he perpetrated for decades. He insists that he acted alone. Given the magnitude of his financial empire, this lone schemer scenario seems highly improbable. How would he have had the time to enjoy the yachts, the country clubs and the high roller life if he had to constantly cook the books?

So it seems to me that the prosecutors representing us, the people, took a real short cut on Madoff, leaving many stones and dollars unturned.

When I heard the Madoff verdict, the phrase "just desserts" came to mind. And then I got to wondering - "what does that phrase actually mean?" Well, it turns out that the phrase is a twisted one, and that there is a lack of consensus about it, plus some serious spelling issues.

According to internet source Snopes.com: when one gets what one deserves, good or bad, one is getting one's "just deserts." The deserts is spelled like the sandy arid desert, but pronounced like the sweet, tasty end of meal treat. "Just deserts" might also be thought of as "justice deserved."

Does the United States legal system mete out justice deserved? Amidst the euphoric sweep of hope and change that has become the theme of the current Washington administration, perhaps it is time to have a national heart-to-heart over the mess that is our prison system. And it turns out that there is indeed a man, a Democrat senator from Virginia, ready to engage that conversation.

An article by Dahlia Lithwick in the June 15, 2009, edition of Newsweek should be required reading by every American eligible to vote. In "Our Real Prison Problem," Lithwick reports on Senator James Webb's effort to reform the U.S. prison system. The gist of Webb's argument is that a nation with 5% of the world's population that houses 25% of the world's prisoners has a real fundamental problem.

The problem, of course, is that we lock up the mentally ill and drug users along with real trouble and wind up with a staggering math problem X $27,000 per year. We've created a time bomb of a problem with overcrowded facilities that we can't afford to properly run. Money for training, education and rehabilitation for prisoners is simply nonexistent. And we leave the actions of the lawmakers and the judges separate and apart from the prison system they ultimately fill.

How could any of this be characterized as "justice deserved."

For years I've had a nagging wonder about the Biblical charge to care "for the least of them" in our midst. We put our prisoners away, out of sight, and yet they are here, in our midst.

While perhaps understandable, the applause and the whopping at the Madoff sentencing rings hollow. Justice deserved, it turns out, is a complex concept, and one we've yet to totally achieve.