That, however, was no comedian who had state legislators guffawing last week.

With the legislators wondering where they were going to find millions of dollars to build prisons or expand existing ones to accommodate a rising prison population, state Rep. Ronnie "Shecky" Sutton of Pembroke offered a novel -- and, to politicians who think we're all nuts, hilarious -- proposal.

How did Sutton crack up his colleagues?

Was he proposing that every inmate be given a pillow-top mattress and a chocolate mint each night before being tucked in? Silk jammies?

Naw. The dude merely suggested focusing efforts on keeping people out of prison rather than spending millions to house them.

What a hoot, huh?

Never mind that it requires far less money for dropout prevention -- a clear indicator that a kid will enter the criminal justice system -- than it would to build more prisons.

So what if keeping inmates in the Big House sends us to the poor house?

Legislators dismissed Sutton's sensible solution because of you, dear reader.

See, successful politicians learn, before kissing that first baby or slapping on their first flag lapel pin, that the easiest way to snooker you is to proclaim their toughness on crime.

Take Nelson Dollar. Please.

Dollar, a Cary Republican, told me Monday that "prison just isn't a deterrent because perpetrators know it's highly unlikely, except in the most egregious cases," that they'll see the inside of a cell because of overcrowding.

Now that's funny. Having known many criminals who've done time, and having myself been the involuntary guest of jails in three states a seeming lifetime ago, I can attest that no inmate worthy of the Beyonce cheesecake poster hanging in his cell thought about prison before bopping some bloke upside the head or unlawfully entering somebody's crib.

Dollar disagreed. "Just because someone's a criminal doesn't mean they're not intelligent," he said. "They understand the cost of doing business. We as a society need to raise the cost. ... When you don't have prison beds, that's hard to do."

Oy. You know what stinks?

Even Texas legislators seem progressive when compared with ours. Texas, perceived by many as the hardest-lined of hard-line states in dealing with criminals, has in recent years expanded community monitoring programs and provided more help for inmates making the transition back to society.

A scientific study -- with control groups, graphs, all of that stuff -- by the U.S. Department of Justice's National Corrections Institute contends that increased punishment led to a slight increase in criminal behavior, while drug-treatment and cognitive-skills programs led to decreases of 15 percent and 29 percent, respectively.

Not only that, but we spend an average of $26,105 to keep someone in prison -- $21,000 for minimum security. We spend $5,273.86 to educate him before he gets to prison.

Legislators know that phrases such as "cognitive skills programs" -- which simply teach criminals to think differently -- don't resonate with voters the way "tough on crime" does.

So yeah, the legislators were laughing at Sutton's proposal. But the joke's on us.