Tampa Economy: Wasted Taxpayer Money...

....and I'm sure that the idiots who run the City of Tampa's courts and police departments will love this post.
First off, I should make it clear that I do not drink alcohol with the exception of very rare reason of celebration. I do have a problem with the city of Tampa and their "open container law' enforcement, or their over use of the law in trying to deal with homelessness and those who drink out in public.
Let me point out a few things here. Someone gets a ticket for having an open container of beer or wine, or whatever. The ticket gives the offender a court a date, at which time the offender will be given a fine of something like $135, give or take. I'm okay with things up to this point. What I'm not okay with is...
Said offender maybe has a warrant out on them because they have been arrested or ticketed for the same offense on previous occasions. Obviously, they haven't paid the past fines so now they face either 5 or 10 days in the Falkenburg Jail, depending on the mood of the presiding judge. So, that $135 fine that hasn't been paid is now going to cost the taxpayer $370.20 to keep the offender in jail for 5 days, or $740.40 for a 10 day visit. This is a waste of money which could be better spent on other things in Tampa and Hillsborough County.
I have also noticed that the majority of those getting tickets are in fact the homeless and/ or the day labor workers. I'm not for just letting these offenders off of the hook, but the city/county is never going to collect any of the fines from this group, and locking them up has not been a deterrent either.
$74.04 per day to lock one of these people up. That is cash which is basically going up in smoke. Money out the window! Gone, for nothing. That lost cash is not helping the local economy in the least. Come up with another idea Tampa. there are other ways to pad the officers arrest record.