Because they only committed economic damage against you. It doesn't make sense to send someone to jail who only committed an economic or property crime because:

Because they only committed economic damage against you. It doesn't make sense to send someone to jail who only committed an economic or property crime because: They stole from you and harmed you economically. If they go to prison your tax dollars and the tax dollars of others must house them, pay for their care, etc so they are further harming you economically. It would make more sense to have them provide restitution to you in some form. They should have to pay for: Damage to the car (if the car still exists) + cost of you not having your car and any sort of issues arising from that (i.e. you were on your way to an interview, you came out of 7-Eleven and your car was gone, you missed your interview and now have no job, or some such) + interest on the previous two things they should have to pay for If they destroyed the car in some manner then replace the first part of the equation with the cost of a replacement car of equal value. Prison should be used when someone can cause harm that is permanent such as murder, rape, etc to prevent them from doing it again to someone else. If they harm is just economic in nature then that can be rectified and there is no sense in making everyone pay to house someone who did no permanent damage. Further more as pointed out below, going to prison tends to make people come out worse criminals.