Explain how the author develops Fasulo’s opinion on Mahes’ “serial dining” throughout the text. Cite evidence from the text in your response. "A THIEF DINES OUT, HOPING LATER TO EAT IN"
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, Page 00001
The New York Times Archives
Every now and then, Gangaram Mahes slips on his best donated clothes and lives the high life. He strolls to a nice restaurant, sips a fine aperitif, savors a $50 meal and finishes with hot black coffee. The waiters call him sir, but Mr. Mahes could not dig a dollar from his pocket for a bus ride to heaven.
He is a thief who never runs, a criminal who picks his teeth as the police close in. To be arrested, to go home to a cell at Rikers Island, is his plan when he unfolds his napkin.
Homeless off and on for several years, he steals dinner from the restaurants because he wants the courts to return him to a place in New York where he is guaranteed three meals a day and a clean bed. In a prison system filled with repeat offenders, the 36-year-old Mr. Mahes is a serial diner.
He has committed the same crime at least 31 times, according to his prison record, always pleads guilty and never urges his lawyer to bargain for a reduced sentence. In his eyes, he is just tunneling inside again, with a knife and fork.
"It's tough on the outside," said Mr. Mahes, who is serving 90 days for stealing a swordfish steak from a midtown Manhattan restaurant.
Continue reading the main story
Prosecutors say it is not their job to consider whether locking some criminals up actually gives them what they want: refuge from poverty or hunger. But Legal Aid lawyers, while they have no statistics, said they had seen a small but growing number of people who commit petty crimes with the intent of going to prison. Mr. Mahes is unusual because of his method, and his persistence.
It is life in a cage, sometimes violent, often demeaning, but to Mr. Mahes it is better than drifting from shelter to shelter or living in cardboard boxes. There is order to prison, and you always dine on time, he said.
"I like to live decent," he said. "I like to be clean."
Christina Swarns, a young Legal Aid lawyer defending a man who does not want her help, faces Mr. Mahes through the wire screen of the holding pen at criminal court and does not know whether to laugh or cry.
"It's funny at first, 'The Serial Eater,' " she said. "But it's a very sad thing. How bad is it, his life, that he would prefer prison?"
On one hand is a man who goes to jail at will without hurting anyone, who steals only expensive New York restaurant food. Instead of throwing a rock through a window, he orders a T-bone.
On the other hand is a man who seems to have abandoned hope of ever having anything better, who prefers society's idea of punishment to his place in the society, said Ms. Swarns. In the past two years, he has seldom been free more than a few days before enjoying an illegal entree. Not Too Cheap
He has patronized the American Festival Cafe and the Taj Mahal in Manhattan, and Tony Roma's in two boroughs. He chooses restaurants that are not too cheap, not too expensive. If a restaurant is too pretentious, it might not seat him. If it is too cheap, he might not be arrested for stealing its food.
"If they really wanted to punish him," said Ms. Swarns, "they would stand outside Rikers and say, 'You go away.' "
Instead, Mr. Mahes does 90 days for stealing fish.
It costs taxpayers $162 a day to feed, clothe and house Mr. Mahes at Rikers Island. His 90-day sentence will cost them $14,580, to punish him for refusing to pay the $51.31 check. In five years he has cost them more than $250,000.
Louis Fasulo, a supervising lawyer at Legal Aid, said the real shame was that Mr. Mahes was returned to jail over and over before anyone questioned if it was the right thing.
"No one took the time," he said.
His lawyers have asked for alternative sentencing, including counseling, but prosecutors denied it. If Mr. Mahes wants to live in prison, the City of New York will let him.
Barbara Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Manhattan District Attorney, said Mr. Mahes was returned to prison because he was a thief, with a long record of steali
, Page 00001
The New York Times Archives
Every now and then, Gangaram Mahes slips on his best donated clothes and lives the high life. He strolls to a nice restaurant, sips a fine aperitif, savors a $50 meal and finishes with hot black coffee. The waiters call him sir, but Mr. Mahes could not dig a dollar from his pocket for a bus ride to heaven.
He is a thief who never runs, a criminal who picks his teeth as the police close in. To be arrested, to go home to a cell at Rikers Island, is his plan when he unfolds his napkin.
Homeless off and on for several years, he steals dinner from the restaurants because he wants the courts to return him to a place in New York where he is guaranteed three meals a day and a clean bed. In a prison system filled with repeat offenders, the 36-year-old Mr. Mahes is a serial diner.
He has committed the same crime at least 31 times, according to his prison record, always pleads guilty and never urges his lawyer to bargain for a reduced sentence. In his eyes, he is just tunneling inside again, with a knife and fork.
"It's tough on the outside," said Mr. Mahes, who is serving 90 days for stealing a swordfish steak from a midtown Manhattan restaurant.
Continue reading the main story
Prosecutors say it is not their job to consider whether locking some criminals up actually gives them what they want: refuge from poverty or hunger. But Legal Aid lawyers, while they have no statistics, said they had seen a small but growing number of people who commit petty crimes with the intent of going to prison. Mr. Mahes is unusual because of his method, and his persistence.
It is life in a cage, sometimes violent, often demeaning, but to Mr. Mahes it is better than drifting from shelter to shelter or living in cardboard boxes. There is order to prison, and you always dine on time, he said.
"I like to live decent," he said. "I like to be clean."
Christina Swarns, a young Legal Aid lawyer defending a man who does not want her help, faces Mr. Mahes through the wire screen of the holding pen at criminal court and does not know whether to laugh or cry.
"It's funny at first, 'The Serial Eater,' " she said. "But it's a very sad thing. How bad is it, his life, that he would prefer prison?"
On one hand is a man who goes to jail at will without hurting anyone, who steals only expensive New York restaurant food. Instead of throwing a rock through a window, he orders a T-bone.
On the other hand is a man who seems to have abandoned hope of ever having anything better, who prefers society's idea of punishment to his place in the society, said Ms. Swarns. In the past two years, he has seldom been free more than a few days before enjoying an illegal entree. Not Too Cheap
He has patronized the American Festival Cafe and the Taj Mahal in Manhattan, and Tony Roma's in two boroughs. He chooses restaurants that are not too cheap, not too expensive. If a restaurant is too pretentious, it might not seat him. If it is too cheap, he might not be arrested for stealing its food.
"If they really wanted to punish him," said Ms. Swarns, "they would stand outside Rikers and say, 'You go away.' "
Instead, Mr. Mahes does 90 days for stealing fish.
It costs taxpayers $162 a day to feed, clothe and house Mr. Mahes at Rikers Island. His 90-day sentence will cost them $14,580, to punish him for refusing to pay the $51.31 check. In five years he has cost them more than $250,000.
Louis Fasulo, a supervising lawyer at Legal Aid, said the real shame was that Mr. Mahes was returned to jail over and over before anyone questioned if it was the right thing.
"No one took the time," he said.
His lawyers have asked for alternative sentencing, including counseling, but prosecutors denied it. If Mr. Mahes wants to live in prison, the City of New York will let him.
Barbara Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Manhattan District Attorney, said Mr. Mahes was returned to prison because he was a thief, with a long record of steali
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