My personal view is that the government should never be able to profit from prosecuting a crime. Law enforcement should never be a money making venture, and it

My personal view is that the government should never be able to profit from prosecuting a crime. Law enforcement should never be a money making venture, and it would never be possible to implement a system that overcomes the perverse incentives so long as it is. I don't think the financial disincentive is necessarily corrupt, in the form of fines or asset forfeiture, but I think that they should never be allowed to contribute to government revenue in any way. If the government has any incentive to prosecute somebody, other than a well founded and provable basis for believing they committed a crime, then the justice system just becomes a weapon to turn against the citizens it's supposed to be protecting. If the government has a financial incentive to prosecute certain crimes over others, then how the law is enforced is not going to align with community needs. For instance, that's why there's never enough police to attend burglaries, but always enough police for handing out speeding tickets.