Ninety days of home confinement might be an appropriate sentence for some criminal offenses.

But many people might be puzzled — quite appropriately — about Erie County Court's decision to mete out a 90-day home-confinement sentence to an Albion, Erie County, couple who admitted running an online prostitution business from their home.

Since the couple — Mindy McAllister, 36, and Ricky McAllister, 47 — got into trouble at home, the court might have gotten a better public reaction if it had assigned the couple to a sentence outside their home — perhaps, 90 days assigned to a state Department of Transportation "Adopt a Highway" road litter cleanup program or some other community-service project.

It does not seem that the McAllisters' sentence poses much inconvenience to them, but it does return them full time to "the scene of the crime," where they presumably will have plenty of free time that could be put to better use.

The McAllisters initially were charged last March with 174 counts each of criminal solicitation and eight counts each of prostitution and related offenses. But under a deal with prosecutors, both McAllisters pleaded guilty to one count each of possessing instruments of a crime and five counts each of prostitution and criminal solicitation. In addition, the couple was sentenced to five years of probation.

Some people might say that the court handed down punishment that fit the crime — or, at least, to what the McAllisters pleaded guilty. Others might regard the sentence as a sweetheart deal — a feeble attempt at refocusing the McAllisters' business instincts in a different, law-abiding direction.

In their former business, the McAllisters aimed to please. And, unfortunately, so did the court, in the way it handled this case.