Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey A. Manning is not known for being soft on criminals, but that is the end result of his giving former state Rep. Jeff Habay a break.

It's not a bad thing that an experienced judge sometimes looks at the circumstances of an individual and his crime and errs on the side of mercy. But some principles have to be respected.

Boiled down to the essentials, Mr. Habay abused the public trust when he was a legislator. He was convicted in late 2005 of forcing state employees to do campaign work -- for which he was later sentenced to six to 12 months and which he was told could be served in alternative housing.

In 2007, he pleaded no contest to 21 criminal counts, including threatening witnesses and making a false claim that he had received a white powder in the mail from a political opponent that he feared might be anthrax. He was sentenced to four to eight months behind bars.

The sentences were to run concurrently. Mr. Habay spent only a week in the Allegheny County Jail in 2006 before going to a halfway house, where he spent two months. But he appealed and was allowed to be confined to house arrest while he waited for a ruling. That time did not count against his sentence.

With the Supreme Court rejecting his appeal on the charge of forcing staffers to do campaign work, Mr. Habay was supposed to report to jail Aug. 1, but Judge Manning decided Tuesday that he had been punished enough. He can spend the remaining four months of his sentence in a halfway house, or even under house arrest if the original sentencing judge agrees.

It's not enough. We have no desire to hound Mr. Habay, but his treatment is not enough deterrent and it's not enough respect for the public trust that he abused. True, Mr. Habay has paid a price -- he has no job and no pension; he cares for his young son who has autism. But the principle shouldn't bend completely to these circumstances and, besides, he was treated leniently in the first place.

The principle ought to be: Abuse the public trust, go to jail -- not halfway house, not house arrest -- jail. That should be the principle for both Mr. Habay and, looking to the future, anyone convicted in the Bonusgate scandal roiling Harrisburg. Let's not forget that any crimes against the public trust punish the public, too.