This time someone has to go to jail.

Visit someplace old and dripping with history and one of the most fascinating things you will see among the ruins is ancient prisons. Since humans began to organize into societies, they’ve recognized the need for facilities to confine wrongdoers.

It would be nice if we could avoid the wrongdoing by incarcerating bad actors before they do wrong. But that’s clearly impossible. So, we don’t have prisons to confine criminals before they commit a crime.

We have prisons to confine criminals after they have committed a crime.

The purpose is two-fold. The first and most obvious is public safety. Dangerous individuals – murderers, rapists, gang bangers and the like – must be taken off the street lest they be free to do more harm or commit more violence. Prisons do that.

But there is a second and equally important role carried out by the imprisonment of criminals – a role that is germane to our discussion here. That role is deterrence.

Violent crimes are often committed in the fire of passion. But other crimes are premeditated and calculated. Part of such calculation needs to be that the commission of a crime that one is contemplating can result in the long-term loss of one’s basic liberties. The goal is to chasten would-be wrongdoers before they do wrong.

As Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s recent “Russiagate” document dump unmistakably illustrates, that deterrence has for too long been lacking at the top reaches of the federal government. That lack has done incalculable damage to the very fabric of the republic. Trust in American institutions has cratered.

Hillary Clinton commits gross violations regarding classified documents, lies through her teeth and destroys subpoenaed evidence – and totally skates. IRS official Lois Lerner uses the awesome power of her office to illegally suppress conservative political expression, gets caught – and yet is allowed to comfortably retire. FBI Director James Comey takes evidence that he knows is pure baloney and uses it to swear out a warrant to illegally surveil a candidate for President of the United States. Zip.

There are plenty more examples. Simply put, elites in government, almost all Democrats – protected as they have been by a complicit media – have committed outrageous acts against the American people and have done so secure in their belief that they would never be punished.

This must stop with these explosive revelations surrounding the Russiagate conspiracy against Donald Trump.

Attorney General Pam Bondi this week announced the empanelment of a grand jury to take this matter up, which raises the possibility – the possibility – of indictments.

The Left is howling. Some A-list Dems are lawyering up. The media will either try to ignore it or characterize it as Trump retribution.

And given our recent experience, the fear is that in the end nothing will come of it.

But let’s hope not. Pray not. Russiagate must be the line in the sand. This time, people must be prosecuted and go to prison.

If not, the next even greater outrage becomes inevitable.

And our beautiful republic further slips from our grasp.