Justin Hart of Litchfield viewed as many as 28 pornographic photos of children under the age of 12 while taking a break from his job cleaning a local pediatrician’s office. He didn’t download or send anything. He just looked at the images and, for punishment, he is going to jail for two years.

Regis Lepage of Auburn had 36 photos and 62 video clips of child porn on his home computer, having disseminated some or all of them. His sentence is community service, not jail.

Hart, who was sentenced in Androscoggin County Superior Court on Wednesday, is a 20-year-old man who cleans offices for a living.

Lepage, sentenced in the same court, is the 53-year-old former vice president of Lepage Bakeries and a man of considerable means and powerful friends.

It’s no surprise that people noticed the crimes are similar but the sentences are worlds apart.

To be fair, Lepage was sentenced to eight years in jail, with all of that time suspended. So, there is some chance that if he violates the terms of his suspended sentence – like using a computer or not fulfilling 4,000 hours of community service – he could go to jail.

Hart was sentenced to four years in jail, with half of the sentence suspended.

Lepage’s sentence is longer, to be sure, but his actual punishment is stunningly less.

When Lepage appeared in court last July, Justice Donald Marden declared that Lepage had “created his own prison” through his personal actions, a virtual prison considered painful and adequate punishment for such a high-profile member of the community.

Hart has also created his own prison, but Justice Thomas Delahanty II sentenced him to actual prison, too.

When it comes right down to it, despite the differences in their checkbooks, their community connections and their jail terms, these men are the same: sex offenders.

After Lepage was sentenced, members of the Maine Computer Crimes Task Force said they couldn’t remember another child porn conviction that didn’t include time behind bars.

At the time, Sen. Bill Diamond, D-Windham, said he intended to raise the issue with legislators of whether there should be mandatory minimum sentences in child porn cases to erase the possibility that influence can buy justice at clearance prices. Given the current overcrowding in Maine’s jails and prisons, Diamond will be pushing against great resistance to transform this concept into law.

Maybe it’s the wrong tack.

In explaining Marden’s largesse in sentencing Lepage, experts pointed out that judges are permitted to use discretion and that’s precisely what Marden did. He imposes sentences- like all Maine judges do – using whatever subjective yardstick he likes.

Maybe Maine doesn’t need minimum sentencing guidelines for sex crimes against children. Maybe Maine needs to elect its judges, making them more accountable to the public they serve.