If some Michigan lawmakers have their way, students might want to save their drinking money for court fees and bail.

Newly proposed legislation would mandate jail time for minors cited with possession of alcohol. It not only has negative repercussions for young people but for Michigan taxpayers as well.

If the legislation pushes through, judges will have the right to send underage drinkers to jail for up to 90 days if they don't complete treatment or community service programs. Lawmakers are trying to teach underage drinkers a lesson, but three months in jail would be devastating educationally to many offenders, most of whom are students.

Trading the classroom for a jail cell isn't high on anyone's to-do list.

Right now, judges don't have legal ability to force minors who are cited for underage drinking to comply with probation terms. And apparently, the current laws mandating a $100 fine and possible license suspension for a first-time underage drinking citation aren't stiff enough for lawmakers.

In an effort to give judges more leverage, at least three bills adding 90-day jail sentences for underage drinking have been introduced in the state House and Senate. One bill gives judges the option of sentencing jail-time for first offenses, while the others target multiple offenses and violation of probation terms.

So far this year, more than 800 minor in possession citations have been issued in East Lansing, up from last year's 683. Statistics such as these make it obvious that underage drinking needs to be addressed, but jail time is not the right way to go about it.

Shipping offenders off to jail for a few months is ignoring the problem, not solving it. Using jail time as a bullying device is not likely to force young people to make better choices.

More aggressive substance abuse programs or stiffer fines for multiple offenses are a smarter option.

Repeat MIP offenders need to be helped, not ignored. The proposed legislation hits students especially hard on the heels of the new East Lansing noise ordinance, which mandates jail time and fines up to $1,000 for the severest noise offenders.

Lawmakers need to understand that jail is not a useful tool for improving community relations with young people.

Underage drinking is illegal, but there are better ways to handle the problem than tossing the convicted in jail. Minors who choose to drink are only harming themselves, yet the potential jailing punishment is a harsher penalty than other crimes that involve harming others.

The crime of underage drinking is no reason to clog state prisons with students who would be learning much better lessons if they weren't missing school.

We hope lawmakers find a smarter alternative to the problem of underage drinking than imposing jail sentences, but until then, students should be careful with their choices.