(Ed. Note: This is the second of a multi-part series chronicling former Olympic sprinter and the now imprisoned Marion Jones, her involvement with steroids, and why the book was thrown at this mother of small children. Come back to Set-Magazine.com every week for a new installment)

It's not that other non-athletes associated with steroids haven't run headlong into correctional institutions. Conte was incarcerated for four months. Chemist Patrick Arnold, inventor and supplier to BALCO of the synthetic steroid Tetrahydrogestrinone (THG or "the Clear"), along with two other performance-enhancing drugs, received a whopping three months. It's interesting to note that the dynamic drug duo of Conte/Arnold received less prison time than perjurious user Jones. Sending the message that Jones' lying about taking the Clear was a worse offense than the actual inventing, buying, selling and pushing. Begging the question: Is the U.S. Attorney's Office on drugs, too?

It's not that other athletes haven't been imprisoned on steroid-related charges; however, prior incarceration dealt with the crime of steroid trafficking rather than mere usage. Examples follow:

- In 1972, Olympian David Jenkins was convicted in 1988 of smuggling a $70 million supply of steroids from Mexico. Although sentenced to seven years, Jenkins ultimately served nine months. Allowed to keep his silver Olympic medal, Jenkins' company, Nutrition Next, currently hawks a muscle-building Designer Whey Detour Protein Bar with "breakthrough GlycerLEAN, helping your hard working muscles recover and get leaner, stronger, faster…" Per his company's website: "Think of it as SNICKERS® on steroids."

- In 2006, professional cage wrestler Buckley Acosta was caught by U.S. Customs while attempting to import 12 syringes of steroids from Central America to California. Given his prior conviction in 2001 for assault with a deadly weapon, his prison sentence was to last between 16 months to three years. However, the Deputy DA Julie Peterson stated he was "statutorily eligible for the drug-treatment program," which allowed Acosta to swap three years of prison for three years of probation.

As for Jones' other perjury charge relating to her role in the check-kiting scheme, NBA athlete Chris Webber had to contend with a much more serious crime:

- In 2002, Webber was charged with perjury after lying to a federal grand jury about accepting inappropriate monies during his college years at the University of Michigan. Rather than having to spend five years in prison, he simply forked over a fine.

And what about Jones' involvement in this troublesome check-kiting scheme? The scheme that had little, if anything to do with her? Tim Montgomery, father to her eldest child, pled guilty to conspiracy and two counts of bank fraud in 2007 for his role in depositing at least 20 stolen, altered or counterfeit checks worth over $5 million into varying accounts from 2002-2005. Montgomery, famous for his moniker "World's Fastest Man" (far from World's Best Choice of Partner) and previously banned from sports due to his own steroid abuse, states that he met the head of the check-kiting ring through a mutual friend.

According to Jones' 2007 widely-circulated e-mail to family and friends explaining her legal troubles, "Tim Montgomery, Monty's biological father, gave me the check in 2005 and told me that it was from the sale of a refurbished vehicle that he owned and it would be towards partial repayment of $50, 000.00 which I loaned him for attorney expenses back in 2004." She further explained, "I lied because I wanted to protect Monty's biological father…I did not want to be the one responsible for putting him in jail or getting him in trouble." Ah, Marion. If only you'd married Montgomery, instead of merely shacking up, you could have invoked the spousal privilege law and refused to testify.