Editorial: Justice can’t let senior citizens off the hook

• Reprints

Updated: February 21, 2012 8:37AM

It’s never too late to send a bad guy to prison.

The rehabilitation value goes out the window when we lock up an old geezer like Joseph Jerry “The Monk” Scalise. The Monk started lifting other people’s stuff when he was just a tyke. Now in his mid-70s, he’s not about to see the light of goodness.

It’s a good idea to lock him up anyway if it encourages the next graying career crook to consider the joys of retirement. Nobody should get points because he looks like Grandpa.

The Monk on Wednesday pleaded guilty to mob racketeering and such. He faces up to nine years in prison. He admitted to charges that he and two other elderly gents plotted to rob an armored car and the home of a dead mob boss.

Their theory, not so crazy in these circles, was that the mob boss had hid money in the walls.

Scalise first gained fame in 1980 when he and a pal, Arthur “The Genius” Rachel — now 73 and one of those accused with The Monk of plotting the recent robberies — stole a famous gem, the Marlborough Diamond, from a London jewelry store.

Scalise got 13 years for that one, but never said what happened to the diamond.

Maybe if The Monk talks now, the judge can cut him a deal — no less prison time, but a subscription to AARP magazine, delivered to his cell.