The pitchfork crowd will no doubt disagree, but most Wacoans should quietly take note of onetime civic leader Margaret Mills’ release from prison today, then move on about their usual business without thoughts of anger over the fact she has served less than 17 months of her nine-year sentence for felony theft.

As long as we learn from the greater misdeeds admitted by Mills herself, we see no reason to wish her ill will.

Yes, some will complain mightily that Mills ought to serve far more of her sentence, if not every day of it. She did, after all, put asunder the immense trust invested in her as longtime executive director of Downtown Waco Inc., an agency that was really just hitting its stride in helping chart a new course for downtown growth. Her embezzlement of hundreds of thousands of dollars from the agency wrecked the nonprofit group, and on its 50th anniversary.

Yet we see no gain in Mills serving more time behind bars, despite the cries for severe justice we’ll likely hear. Mills has served nearly 17 months in prison, where she has been a model prisoner, causing no problems and working in the prison laundry. She even reached the prized status of trusty, allowing her certain freedoms and privileges. Plus, the prison space at this particular juncture can almost certainly be better used for someone besides a 69-year-old woman who hasn’t exactly committed a crime of violence.

Mills returns to society a broken woman, at least in some ways. Certainly, her status as a civic leader in Waco is forever gone. No one of any intelligence will ever trust her around money again or in any position of authority, for all the good she did in her earlier career. And wherever she goes about the town she helped shape, neighbors and residents in the know will be unable to get completely past her crime, committed with great stealth over several years. She’ll remain on parole until 2017, when she’s 76 years old.

All told, her fall from a position of privilege, respect, even envy will be punishment enough when added to the period of incarceration she served.

Now begins a new chapter for Margaret Mills and her family. If her example remains one about the temptations of power and the folly of allotting anyone too much trust these days, she should nonetheless be allowed to walk among us again. We even hope Mills can find, besides at least a small measure of happiness and hope, some way to again contribute to our community, proving that even those of us who transgress against our neighbors can learn and strive to correct ourselves. Without that, we are nothing.