I have been instructed by the BOP to stop giving out bibles. It seems it is a violation of policy for me to give anything of value to another inmate. Any that are currently in a stage of being shipped will be ok, but please hold off if you were planning to order one.
If I can make other arrangements, I will let you all know.
I thank you.
God’s Peace
Tony
My name is Alan and I have accepted the judgment of the court that sentenced me to 60 months in a federal prison for one count of simple possession of child pornography. With two years of group therapy prior to my sentencing, I was also able to accept responsibility for my actions. And with the help of friends outside and inside (and Way Above) these walls, I am working on forgiving my self for these actions.
The devastation left behind with any crime can be like the trail behind a tornado. But with this kind of crime, the devastation carries a stigma that cannot be erased by just hard work or with time — even lots of time.
In my own case, the shame alone made me wish for death. I used to say I “lost” a job, a career, a wife, a stepdaughter, an adopted son, and five amazing grandkids. But the truth is, I didn’t lose them — I threw them all away on porn.
Since my arrest in March, 2009, I have only seen my wife once. We had to shout through a phone and glass, and she had a lot to shout about, including how she hoped I got seriously hurt while in prison. Not because of what I had done, but because of the pain and anger I had caused her.
My stepdaughter and adopted son refuse to have anything to do with me now, and, of course, I have had no contact with any of their children, including a grandson I helped raise. I’ve been their dad and “Popi” for 20 years now.
But these were the immediate victims of this tornado. There would be phone calls to my family — my father and his wife, my mother, my sister and brother, my two adult sons.
How does a man stand before his 26-year-old son and tell him how weak he is? Tell him of his breakdown in moral fiber? Speak of his descent into cybersex hell? Confess to downloading porn that included underage girls? Admit to cheating on his stepmother by having an online affair?
But I did it. I told him everything and I cried. Another humiliating thing to do in front of your child.
And my father. The man who taught me sports, coached my teams, put up with my teen angst, bragged about his son…the teacher. How do I sit down with my hero and tell him how vile I am? What a slave to internet porn I had become? How I let all good judgment fly out the window and threw away my life?
But, I did that too. And I cried again.
Mom would be the hardest. All those days suffering in bed with chicken pox and the mumps and measles. The skinned knees and broken hearts. How would I explain to her that I had become an objectifier of women by downloading filth? That I had done worse and allowed photos of underage teens to cross my monitor and I kept them? How I had shamed her and my sister and wives and daughter by turning my back on how I was raised and had become no better than the “perverts” we read about in the paper?
But this I also did. And I cried even harder.
And now all I have is time to think about the devastation I have wrought, the pain I have caused, and the suffering of my family.
My son is now 27 with a girlfriend and a newborn. His younger brother is living with him. They are on that cusp looking for guidance, and I’ve stolen that from them. Because of my selfish sin, my boys have lost a father and a grandfather to baby James.
To Ross and Trey, I am truly sorry, but those words cannot make up for the movies and meals and great conversation I have stolen from you. Branded for life on my inner mind will be my son’s face when he went with me to the federal marshal’s offices to turn myself in. The sadness in his blue eyes as they misted up and he gave me a great big bear hug — the last hug I have had. And he would tell me with pride in his voice, “I love you, Dad.”
I think about what 60 months means to someone like my dad. During the two years we waited while the state case was delayed and I got therapy — and the Feds took over — my father, near 80, had four major organs removed. He was left with a colostomy bag. He went from a strong 225-pounder who could still work in his yard to 150 pounds and getting winded walking to the mailbox and back. My dad, the Air Force lifer, the original “Goose” Tatum on the basketball court, needed me now. Needed weekend time around his house. Needed his oldest son to talk to, rebond with.
His health is still shaky over a year later. I don’t know what the next five years will hold. But I pray he will still be around when they let me out.
And I think of my mother, now 81, with early-onset Alzheimer’s. I think of her sitting in her home alone wondering how her first born is doing? Is he warm enough? Does he have enough to eat? Sometimes I wonder if she even remembers where I am. Or will she remember me at al when I get out.
I do not want to think of these things. But I do. I have the time — lots of it. And with it, I must do the positive things necessary, so that when I am freed, and I do return to them, I am not a shell of what they once called son, brother, Dad.
It has to start with me forgiving myself — and that’s been impossible so far. Unlike that tornado that left that path of destruction behind it, I can’t leave it behind. I must go back and repair what I can. And to do so, I have to continue to look within myself for understanding. And accept guidance and friendship when offered.
And I must keep on praying that He’ll stay by my side as I begin this, hopefully, short chapter of my life.
‘Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I can accomplish’
Michelangelo
‘Blessed are those who are generous, because they feed the poor.’
Proverbs 22:9 NLT
When I wrote the article titled “You don’t speak Chinese to an Irishman” back in May, I said that if I received just one of the study Bibles requested , “I have helped to make a difference. Any more than that would be extremely appreciated.”
Well, thanks to family, friends, readers and a Bible study group in Virginia, I am happy to tell you that – so far – WE have made an important difference in the lives of over 30 men, and I thank those of you who have helped me create this problem I now face – I need more!!
I am approached several time a week by individuals who have seen this particular study Bible – most refer to it as “that big, green bible” – and the questions are always the same: “are you getting any more?” and “ can I get on the list?”
I was afraid to ask for the help of all who read “The Chronicles” the first time for fear that I would not get a response. I know now that I have nothing to fear, so I will ask again. It is a gift of life, almost, to some of these men.
When I walk through The Unit and see men carrying them, or reading them, I thank the Lord for pointing me to you – the people who can and have made a difference in the lives of many men who need to know, live and learn what is contained in the pages of this beautiful book.
Those of us who study it are taken to a whole new level of appreciation and understanding of the Word of God and it truly does make a difference.
When you send one of these bibles to be given to one of these men, you are helping to change a life – sometimes a little, sometimes a lot – but in any case, it is no small thing you are doing.
I appreciate those who follow “The Chronicles” and I give thanks for the words of support I receive, and for your help in this little project of mine.
To make things easier, the mailing/shipping address is below.
Anthony E Casson
91153-004 Allen-1
Federal Correctional Institution, Box 5000
Oakdale, LA 71463
God Bless you All, Tony
“Crimes and Their Punishments: 21st Century Slave Traders: The Horrors in the Holds of the Ships”
“We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization.” Franklin D. Roosevelt
“For the leaders of the people have misled them. They have led them down the path of destruction.” Isaiah 9:16 NLT
In 1619, 20 African slaves were sold to colonists at Jamestown, Virginia. After a Dutch frigate pulled into port, laying the foundation for an industry of chained flesh that would soon deliver hundreds of thousands of slaves to the colonies who all survived the brutal trip from Africa in the holds of the slave ships.
Men, women, and children – kept in holds that were often no more than four feet high – suffered the long transatlantic voyage lying down, chained in pairs, hands to feet, riding out the journey with the indignity, sickness, and death that accompanied each cargo of human misery.
Many of the guards and overseers were exceptionally brutal and sadistic men who often displayed a liking for the opportunities to beat, abuse or sexually assault those they were charged with delivering to market.
As long as the holds were full and demand was high, the sacrifice of a few was of no concern to the evil men hired to sail those ships and deliver the “goods” to port. There were no complaints because those who might complain couldn’t speak the language of those they would complain to, and – after all – who listens to the cries of those in chains?
In the 21st century, Americans do listen to cries of “let’s get tough on crime” and accept the well-lobbied solution to the problem which is more prison sentences, for longer durations, without considering the effectiveness, cost, or the motivation of those behind the rallying cry.
Ostensibly, those who are elected to lead this country are educated individuals, but it doesn’t take a college degree to know that you can’t lock up the deficiencies of a society. You can lock up that society’s citizens, though, but while the prisons fill up, creating a constant need for new ones, the root causes that created the criminal in the first place remain on the outside of the prison walls, creating still more need for still more prison beds.
Ultimately, the only benefit derived from this approach is by those who profit financially from the unnecessary misery of hundreds of thousands of this country’s citizens.
As CCA, GEO, other private companies, and their myriad lobbyists, lawyers, and legislators sail forward on their self-serving quest for higher revenues and larger dividends for their shareholders, they leave behind them a disturbing wake of undelivered promises, suffering, pain, misery, and even death that simply cannot be ignored.
While this writer claims no degree in business, it would seem to be a safe bet that it simply is not possible to provide better rehabilitative programs, better health care services, better drug treatment programs, better vocational programs, higher trained personnel and greater security – all while providing a healthy bottom line and dividends for shareholders – all while doing it less expensively than a state or federal government run institution.
The promise of “…the best of the business world with the strong oversight and consistent standards of our governments.” (from CCA’s website) have not been fulfilled by any stretch of the imagination.
GEO’s website, thegeogroupinc.com, boasts that “our unique approach allows GEO to provide high quality and cost-effective service with state-of-the-art designs, innovative programs and ground breaking treatment approaches.”
If you consider counseling sessions in a GEO Juvenile Facility in Coke County, TX being run by guards and a guard who raped a 14 year old girl nightly, promising “to kill your sister and your mom if you tell anybody” ground breaking, then I guess GEO has lived up to its claim.
“LOCKED INSIDE A NIGHTMARE” is a story by CBS News from February 11, 2009 and is our first example of “The Horrors in the Holds of the Ships” operated by the slave traders of the 21st Century.
Sara Lowe had trouble adjusting after her family moved to Texas from Nebraska where she grew up.
Sara was 14 when she was arrested for attacking her mother after an argument escalated and she went out of control. Ultimately, she was sentenced to 6 months in Wackenhut Corrections Corporation’s (this was before the change to GEO Group) new Coke County Juvenile Justice Center. It was believed that Sara would receive intensive counseling by well-qualified staff. Sara’s mother, Gayle Lowe, said she was told “they would all have Bachelor’s Degrees in either Criminal Justice or Psychology… Child Psychology. It just sounded wonderful!”
It was expensive too. The State of Texas paid $118.00 per day for each girl sent there and in addition to the “well-qualified” counselors, they were to receive educational instruction of the same quality.
It seems the facility never lived up to its billing as Sara was promoted through three grades of high school in just six months, and even though it was an all-girl’s prison, it was staffed mostly by men.
Sara eventually told her sister, Jenny, about the nightly visits, the rapes, and the death threats, by one of the guards.
In 1998, the Lowe’s filed suit claiming “widespread systematic sexual assault” of the girls in the prison. Eleven more girls joined the suit and two Wackenhut employees eventually pled guilty to criminal charges of sexual assault. For the company’s part, the lawsuit was settled with the condition that Sara or her parents were to never discuss what happened in the prison.
Sara Lowe shot and killed herself the day of the settlement.
Her sister, Jenny, said Sara was upset because neither the company or its founder, George Wackenhut, would admit any responsibility. Wackenhut CEO, George Zoley, told CBS, “we have signed a confidentiality agreement regarding that lawsuit, and I’m really not allowed to speak about it any further.”
When asked if he thought the company owed an apology to Sara, or any other inmate, Zoley responded, “Not that I’m aware of. I don’t know what you mean by that.”
Also in 1998, Wackenhut opened the Jena Juvenile Justice Center for boys in Louisiana. In 1999, 17 year old Dale Ortega was sentenced to Jena for 6 months, where, the judge who sentenced him, Marie Doherty said, “…they were to have a first rate substance abuse treatment program with trained substance abuse counselors.”
Instead, Ortega found that several employees were pushing drugs and sex in the cell blocks. He saw guards smoking marijuana with inmates and some guards had sex with inmates.
In one year, the facility went through five wardens and turned over the entire staff three times. The U.S. Department of Justice investigated Jena and found that youths were subjected to “cruel and humiliating punishments.” The report also said that guards “routinely used excessive force” and that “the Jena Center is a dangerous place to be.”
The Justice Department also found that Jena medical records showed 100 serious traumatic injuries in one 2 month period, an “unacceptably high number of traumatic injuries.”
Investigators found that Jena, Louisiana, and Coke County, Texas, had the same problem – most guards had no experience.
Dave Ortega also stated that, while he was working as a trustee in the Jena office, he was assigned to shred complaints that inmates had written about the guards.
When the Louisiana Department of Corrections seized control of Jena, a state corrections investigator reported that a guard was caught erasing a videotape that allegedly showed inmate abuse.
The judge who had sentenced Dave Ortega to Jena was shocked by the allegations in the report. The CBS report stated that he had released 7 inmates from Jena, placing them on probation instead. He decided Wackenhut was putting their lives at risk.
“No matter what reason landed these young people at the facility, they are human beings,” Judge Doherty said.
Admittedly, these first examples of “The Horrors in the Holds of the Ships” are over ten years old. Surely lessons were learned OR were they?
In 2007, the Coke County Facility that failed Sara Lowe, and the other young women so miserably, closed. It had been changed to an all-boys center after the females were removed, but apparently problems remained. Inspectors had reported that feces and urine littered the common area, while the boys’ “education program” consisted of a daily crossword puzzle slipped into their cells. According to the report, the boys would sometimes go 72 hours without taking a shower, days without brushing their teeth, and were sometimes forced to defecate in something other than a toilet.
During an inspection, Texas Youth Commission (TYC) Ombudsman Will Harrell observed an “over-reliance” on pepper spray, an insect infestation, gross understaffing, and bedding that hadn’t been washed in a month.
“There is a greater sense of fear and intimidation in this facility than perhaps any other I have been to”, he wrote.
Another inspection by Harris County’s TYC liaison noted that “one of the dorms lacked a bathroom so the kids had to relieve themselves on the floor or in a plastic bag (if they have one).”
Curiously enough, this facility had twice been named “contract facility of the year” after rave reviews by TYC’s own inspectors.
Remember the phrase I used in the previous article, “cross-pollination”? Two of those inspectors who gave the rave reviews were former GEO employees.
After the ombudsman’s report became public, TYC had no choice but to send in new inspectors. After walking through the facility – the Dallas Morning News reported – they had to scrape human excrement off their shoes.
It was at that point that all 197 young men were removed and placed elsewhere.
All of this in spite of GEO’s website claim that “our team of over 17,000 professionals is dedicated to the safety and care of the individuals assigned to our custody.” Their website states further that “our knowledgeable are experts in… basic education… counseling, substance abuse treatment… and facilities maintenance to ensure that the high level of service our clients demand is adequately provided in each of our business units.”
It was also related in the CBS story that in 1998 a riot at a then Wackenhut, New Mexico prison left 2 people dead. The story also stated that the company was stripped of a $12 million dollar contract in Texas where 12 guards were indicted for having sex with female inmates.
CBS reported that CEO Zoley had this to say: “A correctional organization is subject to numerous allegations of this nature. That’s part of the business. People in prison are not Sunday school children.”
Well, Mr. Zoley, while the last part of that statement may be true, just because they are not Sunday school children does not give those charged with their custody the right to abuse them or treat them like animals.
Perhaps part of the problem is that it takes too long to find out about the abuses suffered by the human beings in their charge because private prisons are shielded from public scrutiny given that they are a private business and therefore are not subject to the same open records requirements as is a government-run institution.
As an example, according to Lauren Reinlie of “Texans for Public Justice”, the Texas Depart of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) acknowledged that it does not collect basic statistics about private facilities, even those routinely gathered from state-run facilities. Among the records not kept were: staffing ratios, number of guards at each facility, and guard disciplinary data to name a few.
Without information, how does TDCJ provide oversight to a group that receives over $200 million dollars a year in public funds and is responsible for the care and safety – indeed, the very lives – of over 16,000 human beings?
To ensure that state government – as well as the public – received the same information from private institutions that it did from state-run institutions, Texas State Representative Solomin Ortiz, Jr. introduced a bill that would have – among other things – subjected private prisons to the same open records laws as public facilities; mandated public hearings before privatization of county jails; and made it illegal for a public servant, such as a sheriff, to be paid by a private prison corporation while drawing public salaries.
The bill was successfully removed from consideration amidst intense lobbying by the well-connected individuals named in the first part of this series, although no one will publicly state that it was removed from consideration because of that lobbying.
One of those lobbyists, GEO’s Michelle Wittenburg, who spoke with at least one of the lawmakers who pulled the bill, took the position that the bill singled out private prison companies to comply with open records laws when “other” private companies have no such mandate.
Correct me if I am wrong, but “other” private companies – I would assume such as Coca Cola, Wal-mart, and General Motors – do not have human beings in chains and behind bars as their primary “product.” The position that a company operating prisons should be no more transparent than one that manufactures cars, soda pop, or sells garden hoses is a preposterous one to take and would be laughable were it not for one important fact – that position was accepted and the bill was killed.
For a group of individuals elected to work in the best interests of the state they were elected in to agree with this position is as reprehensible and irresponsible as the behavior of some of the individuals locked up in the places whose secrecy these public officials have agreed to protect through their actions.
Other attempts in Texas and elsewhere, to force openness in an “industry” that should have never been allowed to grow without openness and accountability, have failed as well.
In spite of the success at limiting access to records and practices behind these private walls, reports of mismanagement, abuse, criminal activity, sexual assault and other atrocities still manage to be exposed causing a logical thinking person to ask, “If this is what we are hearing about, what are we not hearing about?”
Some of the more notable examples include:
An ACLU lawsuit filed last year against a CCA facility in Idaho, asks for class action status and seeks $155 million dollars in damages. The ACLU charges that the prison is so violent it is known as a “gladiator school” among inmates. According to the ACLU, guards deliberately exposed inmates to beatings from other prisoners as a “management tool”. The lawsuit went on to charge that guards denied medical care as a way to save money and hide the extent of the injuries. A video surfaced last November that showed prison guards watching one inmate beat up another. The inmate was beaten unconscious with no action taken by the guards. The FBI stepped in to investigate at the beginning of December. CCA, rather than taking responsibility for the actions of its employees, condemned the release of the video as “an unnecessary security risk to our staff, the inmates entrusted to our care, and – ultimately – to the public.”
During hearings in Maine to discuss the idea of private prisons, Shenna Bellows – Executive Director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union – criticized the track record of the private prison companies, cautioning that, “private prison companies in other states have been found guilty of illegal corruption schemes, paying kickbacks to judges and elected officials to secure contracts for the transport of more prisoners to their facilities.” Addressing the issue of violence at privately run prisons, Bellows cited a 2004 report by the “Federal Probation Journal” stating that private prisons had an almost 50 percent higher record of inmate-on-staff assaults compared to similar public prisons. She also discussed the previously mentioned incidents in Idaho as well as suits against a GEO Group for violations at a Mississippi Juvenile Facility which GEO took over just last August. At that facility, which is the nation’s largest juvenile facility, a class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of 13 inmates. According to National Public Radio (NPR), the lawsuit alleges contraband brought in by guards; sex between guards and inmates; inadequate medical care; and prison violence that led to brain damage in one instance.
In Texas, in 2009, the 13th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the largest civil judgment in the private prison industry’s history. A $42 million dollar wrongful death judgment was awarded against GEO for the 2001 killing of prisoner Gregorio de la Rosa, Jr. in its Willacy County facility. The court summarizes the incident thusly: “This case involves the horrific and gruesome death of Gregorio de la Rosa, Jr. Gregorio, an honorably discharged former National Guardsman, was serving a 6 month sentence at a prison operated by Wackenhut Corrections Corp (now GEO Group) for possession of less than 1/4 gram of cocaine. A few days before his expected release, Gregorio was beaten to death by two other prisoners, using a lock tied to a sock, while Wackenhut’s officers stood by and watched and Wackenhut’s warden smirked and laughed.” The court also “scolded” Wackenhut for withholding or destroying evidence, including a surveillance camera recording of the beating. The court opined, “We find that Wackenhut’s conduct was clearly reprehensible and, frankly, constitutes a disgusting display of disrespect for the welfare of others and for the state’s civil justice system.”
In Arizona, the mother of Linda Haas has filed suit for $40 million dollars against the State of Arizona; Dominion – an Edmunds, Oklahoma company that spec-built a prison in Kingman, Arizona described as being “grossly unsecure”; and Management Training Corporation (MTC), another private prison company. Linda Haas and her husband were murdered by fugitives who escaped from the facility. The inmates – convicted murderers – were also involved in a Colorado shootout, hijackings, kidnapping, and robberies in Arizona and New Mexico, and a robbery in Arkansas.
Privatization takes many forms within the corrections industry. Often, there is just one aspect of a facility that is privatized, as in the case of PA-based “Wexford Health Services”, which bills itself as “the nation’s leading innovative correctional health care company.” Wexford provided health care service for the Central New Mexico Correctional Facility (CNMCF).
After his December 2005 arrest and incarceration, Michael Crespin complained of abdominal pains. He was taken to the University of New Mexico Hospital (UNMH) where he was diagnosed with cancer and underwent surgery. Upon his arrival at CNMCF in March of 2006, Wexford personnel were advised of his condition and alerted to the fact that he had a colostomy bag and had prescriptions for medications as well as chemotherapy, which was to be provided through UNMH. Despite Crespin’s requests, and those of his treating physician at UNMH, Wexford employees lost track of his cancer treatment.
According to his subsequent federal lawsuit, Crespin “missed approximately 14 to 16, or more, medical appointments at UNMH.” The treating physician and staff repeatedly called Wexford staff and CNMCF’s warden to inform them “of the critical nature of these appointments to (Crespin’s) health and that continuing his regular treatments was literally a life or death matter.” The lawsuit further stated that a nurse practitioner from UNMH, Holly C. Rice, spoke to Wexford physician Harvey I. Featherstone in early August 2006 to advise him that “stopping (Crespin’s) treatments would result in his untimely death.”
It was only after investigative reporters started looking into Crespin’s case and “multiple other and serious instances of Wexford’s deliberate indifference in providing medical services” that the treatment plan recommended by UNMH was followed.
Sadly, it was too late. Crespin, 50, died on July 2, 2008. The lawsuit he had started was continued by his family and settled under confidential terms in November 2010.
Not to be outdone by CCA, GEO/Wackenhut, MTC, or Wexford, enter Cornell companies which, prior to being purchased by GEO Group for $730 million dollars in August 2010, was based in Houston, Texas. Prior to that purchase, Cornell had its own set of problems at operations in Arkansas, Pennsylvania, and Texas. In 2001, Cornell struck a deal with the Arkansas Division of Youth Service to manage a facility in Alexander, Arkansas for $42 million dollars. That contract was timely for Cornell shareholders as Cornell was in the process of closing a Pennsylvania Youth Camp after it was discovered that at least 11 kids had been sexually assaulted by guards.
A year after taking over the Alexander facility, investigations were conducted by the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Education. Some of the items for concern that the investigators cited were: under qualified staff; poor monitoring of kids in suicide watch; a lack of textbooks.
Three years later, 17 year old La Keisha Brown dropped dead from blood clots in her lung. State investigators found that her pleas for treatment were ignored by medical staff.
During the investigation into her death, other troublesome discoveries were made: falsification of records and the inappropriate use of forced injections of Thorazine and Benadryl as chemical restraints.
The State of Arkansas resumed control of the Alexandria Facility in 2006.
“Fear the Lord and judge with integrity, for the Lord our God does not tolerate perverted justice, partiality, or the taking of bribes.” 2 Chronicles 19:7
Perhaps the most telling of these tales of “The Horrors in the Holds of the Ships” belonging to our modern day slave traders occurred in Pennsylvania where, in 2010, two former Pennsylvania Juvenile Court Judges were convicted in what became known as the “Cash for Kids” scandal after accepting over $2.6 million dollars in kickbacks from the owners of a privately run juvenile detention center in exchange for harsh sentences that kept the center’s beds filled. Their actions resulted in the dismissal of over 4,000 juvenile cases they had participated in.
“As David said, “Let their bountiful table become a snare, a trap that makes them think all is well. Let their blessings cause them to stumble, and let them get what they deserve.”
Romans 11:9 NLT
That these same types of horrors can be – and are – found in government-run facilities is without question, but studies have shown that, in addition to inmate-on-staff violence being 50 percent more likely, inmate-on-inmate violence is 65 percent more likely to occur in private facilities.
The need for profits requires more than running an efficient operation. It requires cutting costs and – in the process – cutting staff, cutting services, and cutting quality of care.
This is not rocket science, this is the business of slave trading in the 21st century.
To reiterate what Israeli Supreme Court President, Dorit Beinisch, put so succinctly:
“Thus, when the power to incarcerate is transferred to a private corporation whose purpose is making money, the act of depriving a person of his liberty loses much of its legitimacy.
Because of this loss of legitimacy, the violation of the prisoner’s right to liberty goes beyond the violation entailed in the incarceration itself.”
“Men fight for freedom; then they begin to accumulate laws to take it away from themselves.” Thomas Jefferson
“It could probably be shown, by facts and figures, that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.” Mark Twain
“You rulers make decisions based on bribes.” Micah 3:11a NLT
Slave traders in the 18th and 19th centuries used ships to move their cargos of human misery from Africa.
Enduring weeks in cramped, filthy cargo holds that smelled of human waste, sickness, and death, hundreds of chained human beings were crammed into as little space as possible in conditions that would ensure that as many as one third of them would never survive the journey.
Those who were fortunate – or unfortunate – enough to survive the inhuman treatment or the grueling trip would ultimately be sold, their usefulness to the ones who traded in their flesh ended.
Those who profit from human misery today do not face the transportation problems of those from centuries past. The modes of transportation today are planes, buses, vans, and cars, and while almost all survive the journey from city to city and state to state, that journey is still made in chains and the bodies chained are still the commodity they once were, and I say commodity because since the 1980’s prisoners have become exactly that.
The push towards prison privatization has helped to create a huge prison industrial complex in this country, as well as in other parts of the world.
Due in part to the influence of these private companies and their powerful lobbyists, millions of dollars in campaign contributions, and extremely close – almost incestuous – relationships with state and federal governments and various bureaucracies, prison budgets have grown exponentially since the early 1980’s, and continue to do so today, even as these same private companies claim to be able to save money for the governments they have contracts with.
According to the “PEW Center for the states,” state prison budgets since the mid-1980’s have risen from $10 Billion to $52 Billion as state prison populations have grown from under 500,000 to about 2.8 Million today. According to the Spring 2011 issue of FAMMGRAM (a publication put out by “Families Against Mandatory Minimums”), the Federal prison population has increased at least 3 times the rate of State prisons since 1995 and costs the taxpayers over $5 Billion per year!
Since the concept took root, the US has grown to be the largest private prison – and related service – market in the world. England, Scotland, and Wales comprise the 2nd largest market, but the concept of privatization has spread – or tried to spread – to other parts of the world as well.
In 2004, the Israeli Knesset passed a law to allow privatization of prisons in Israel. However, in 2009, 4 years after a petition was filed by the Civil Rights Department in the Law Academic College of Ramat Gan, an expanded panel of 9 judges of the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that privately run prisons are unconstitutional.
Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch wrote, “Israel’s basic legal principles hold that the right to use force in general, and the right to enforce criminal law by putting people behind bars in particular, is one of the most fundamental and one of the most invasive powers in the state’s jurisdiction. Thus, when the power to incarcerate is transferred to a private corporation whose purpose is making money, the act of depriving a person of his liberty loses much of its legitimacy. Because of this loss of legitimacy, the violation of the prisoner’s right to liberty goes beyond the violation entailed in the incarceration itself.”
In this country, Illinois in 1990 (Private Correctional Facility Moratorium Act) and New York in 2000, enacted laws that ban the privatization of prisons, correctional facilities and any services related to their operation.
The growth of privatization in this country has been spearheaded by two companies: Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) was founded in 1983 by Thomas Beasley, a former chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party (which, of course, gave him an instant “in” with Republican Legislators all over the country); and GEO Group, based in Boca Raton, Florida, was founded in 1984 as Wackenhut Corrections Corp, a subsidiary of Wackenhut Security. Somewhere along the line it was changed to GEO Group, probably to distance itself from Wackenhut’s respectable core business of Armored Car, Home and Private Security Services.
Their combined companies house over 170,000 prisoners in over 175 facilities nationwide. To put things in perspective, 170,000 inmates would have been almost half of the total state prison population of 350,000 in 1983, although that figure represented only about 6% of the total 2.8 Million incarcerated today. But it is enough to earn CCA alone over $155 Million in profit last year on $1.6 Billion in revenue.
As prison populations continue to rise, and the costs to house them as well, we are likely to see even more of a shift to privatization, but are the costs – or the savings – really the main factor in making the determination to “go private”?
OR is it just good old American greed?
There are studies that show that privatization saves money. Ostensibly these are well documented, independent studies and it should follow that these studies would speak for themselves in helping legislative bodies make decisions.
If that is the case, why is so much money spent on lobbyists, and on campaign contributions, by companies such as CCA and GEO?
There is so much money moving in so many different directions that it is all but impossible to wrap it all up in a neat bundle to present to you here. But I will give you some disturbing examples of what is happening on a daily basis around this country:
Almost $800,000 of those contributions came from GEO and, if you recall, they are headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida – which happens to be in the Southern third of the state.
These examples in no way make up a complete picture of the money being spent to further the cause of privatization. Indeed, this is just a small number of the contributions made and examples can be found in every state.
Of course, direct campaign contributions and lobbyist’s money are not the only ways people in a position to influence prison populations – and oversight – profit from all of this. Outright ownership of stock in CCA, GEO and many other companies owned by – or providing services to – the private prison industry is another way, and if there are laws regulating ownership, it must be emphasized that it is next to impossible to enforce them. Especially when a multitude of seemingly innocuous other public companies have a stake in all of this, too.
Take, for instance, GEO’s purchase this year of Behavioral Interventions, Inc. BI uses technology to monitor 60,000 non-incarcerated individuals for 900 agencies nationwide and GEO recently paid $415 Million dollars for the company. However, if you own stock in Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Wells Fargo, Barclays, or JPMorgan Chase, you helped finance the acquisition.
Apart from campaign contributions, lobbyist’s money, and stock ownership there is also the myriad relationships between government and business that should be questioned.
The single most self-serving relationship would have to be that created by the “American Legislative Exchange Council”, or ‘ALEC’. Consisting of 2000 state legislators and 250 private and corporate citizens, including employees of CCA. ALEC is based in Washington, DC, and is actually engaged in criminal justice discussions in the U.S. Congress as well as in state legislatures. ALEC is a public policy organization that promoted tough-on-crime legislation and principles such as privatization.
It was during an ALEC meeting that CCA employees and a legislator named Russell Pearce crafted a model legislation that later became almost word for word, Arizona’s controversial Anti-Immigration Bill SB1070.
ALEC’s current push around the country is centered around illegal immigrant bills such as Arizona’s (and now Utah and Georgia) as well as sex offender legislation, focusing on two groups that are unpopular with the media and the public in general.
According to one source, 40% of CCA’s business is done with the Federal Government. Much of it in immigrant detention which is the area where CCA obtained its first Federal Government contract in 1983.
Why does this country prefer to pay to keep an illegal immigrant locked up for 20 years for drug smuggling, or some other crime, and then deport them rather than just deport them upon conviction under the threat of serving their sentence should they return?
At $60 per day per person could CCA have influenced that decision? (The Federal Government pays over $60 per day for CCA to house detainee’s at the Stewart Detention Center, the largest immigration detention center in the country, located in Georgia, among others located across the country.)
According to reports obtained by national public radio, CCA believes that immigration detention is “the next big growth market for privatization”.
The simple fact that ‘ALEC’ exists at all is disturbing – if not outright frightening – in and of itself. It seems to function as a government within our government that has no public oversight or accountability.
Public officials meeting in private with corporate entities to discuss public policy matters and make recommendations to legislative bodies on state and national levels which will financially benefit some – or all – of the participants in those discussions, with no public discourse or record of the proceedings does not follow this writer’s understanding of the principles of this great country. Indeed, ‘ALEC’ deserves further in-depth scrutiny by the very public on whose behalf they are supposedly working.
To this writer ‘ALEC’ could more accurately be described as a cancer that needs to be eradicated from the government body before it spreads to the very heart of this country.
Consider that ‘ALEC’s’ corporate funders include CCA and used to include GEO Group. A past co-chair of the “Criminal Justice Task Force” – a group within their group – was Brad Wiggins, who is a highly placed CCA employee. As for GEO’s involvement, outgoing COO Wayne Clabrese, on November 11, 2010, told a large community gathering that GEO had withdrawn from ALEC years earlier because of the obvious conflict of interest involved in creating legislation that insured an increased supply of prisoners.
Certainly, when one looks at the countless other individual relationships and “cross pollination” (the author’s term) between CCA/GEO and state and federal governments enough red flags should go up and warning bells go off to alarm even the most skeptical of individuals.
In Texas, for instance, well-known and well-connected individuals are employed by CCA and GEO to further the cause of prison privatization.
Following is a list of lobbyists employed by GEO Group in 2007:
In addition to its lobbyists in Texas, GEO’s local attorneys also have close ties to state government:
GEO is not the only one well-represented in Texas; CCA hired Mike Toomey to lobby for them. Toomey, one of three consultants for “Texas Lobby Group”, is a former three term Texas House of Representatives Member. In his biography, Toomey bills himself as the “only individual in Texas history to be Chief of Staff for two Texas Governors”.
In Florida, GEO employs 16 lobbyists. Additionally, the following items should serve to further provide evidence of the extent of “cross-pollination” employed by these companies:
In Arizona, where CCA’s influence has already been demonstrated, it is perhaps easier to understand that influence when one considers the following facts:
“Cross-pollination” is not limited to the south, however, as evidenced by some recent job changes in Ohio Governor John Kasich appointed Gary Mohr to head the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections. Mohr is a former consultant and managing director for CCA. Conversely, CCA hired Kasich’s former Congressional Chief of Staff, Donald Thibaut, as a lobbyist in January.
As this article is being written, Ohio is in the process of selling 5 prisons to private companies through a bidding process. CCA is one of the three (GEO and a company from Utah, MTC are the others). Mohr has stated in a memorandum that he will not be involved in the process.
Excuse me – may I raise my eyebrows here?
State-level government does not have an exclusive on “cross-pollination” where prison privatization is concerned of course. On the federal level, Stacia Hylton was recently appointed heard of the U.S. Marshal’s Service. Until 2010, Hylton was the Federal Detention Trustee.
During Hylton’s tenure, the Office of the Federal Detention Trustee awarded several contracts to GEO. In between the Office of the Federal Detention Trustee and her recent appointment to head the U.S. Marshal’s Service, Hylton worked as a consultant for GEO, and now as head of the Marshal’s Services will house federal detainees in privately owned institutions.
Some, coincidentally, are owned by GEO.
CCA, on the other hand, dipped into the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) talent pool, first in 1992 when J. Michael Quinlan resigned as its director and went to work for CCA, and again in 2011 when, in June, CCA announced the hiring of Harley Lappin as its new Executive VP and Chief Corrections Officer. Lappin had served as Director of the BOP from 2003 until May 7 of this year when his resignation took effect. As Director of the BOP, Lappin would have overseen government contracts with CCA worth 10’s of millions of dollars. CCA spends approximately $1 million dollars annually lobbying at the federal level alone.
“There is a time when we must firmly choose the course we will follow, or the relentless drift of events will make the decision for us.” Herbert V. Prochnow
The time is rapidly approaching when the citizens of this country are going to have to quote a phrase from my Mother and say “Enough is Enough!”
The reasons will be clearer when I continue telling you about the Slave Traders of the 21st Century.
(Ed Note: A periodic posting to TOC, by Richard Roy)
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)
Smile, today is the first day of the rest of your life. –Inane 1970’s bumper sticker
A fellow inmate recently shared with me that his life is over. He is 52 years old and feels that if he dies he would be better off; he has nothing left to live for.
A “Pollyanna” would try to point out all the positive aspects of life: People care and would miss him no matter what he had done. A Pollyanna would probably mention the wonderful things in life that are still left to do and see. It would be a sincere yet futile effort. I’m not a Pollyanna so I helped him look for a rope. Just kidding, we don’t have rope in prison. You have to rip up a bed sheet.
But the conversation did spark a thought in my head; these are rare so they tend to stand out: what will we be upon release from prison?
A painful series of additional thoughts, ideas, and questions, followed, painful for the effort required. I’m a notorious procrastinator.
How did I get here? I mean, really? Prison? Me? Industrial Incident Investigators use a process called “Root Cause Analysis” (RCA). In working backwards from an accident it becomes clear the incident was no accident at all. Each event, circumstance, situation and decision led to a specific conclusion that is obvious in retrospect.
I am an amalgamation of my life experience by conducting a personal RCA. Every school, job, move, hobby, book read, movie seen, church attended, person met had a role in shaping who I am. Add other life events like marriage, children, births/deaths, vacations, divorce, and career change and I hope you see where this leads. No specific event caused me to do what I did to be where I am. Now add prison to the list.
People are not defined by a single event. To do so is to pre-judge and prejudice is unacceptable in our society. Realistically, though, there are those in our lives who allow a solitary event to affect their view of others. These people probably contribute little to our lives. What contribution they do make is most likely negative.
Those who cannot accept the new man, the current “me”, must go. The old adage of “You can never go home again” applies. Acquaintances of the past should remain there if they cannot accept who I am. I’ll never again be who I was. Am I worse off without them? Is Dominique Strauss-Kahn throwing parties for hotter maids? I am thankful for the time we did have, now I’m moving on.
I cannot do anything about what others think or believe. What I can control is my response and behavior toward others. To hinge my serenity on another’s opinion is to relinquish my life to their whim. I’m not willing to do that.
It is much more rewarding to accept who I am and surround myself with those who support the new me. English clergyman, Thomas Bayes, is credited with Baye’s Rule: Initial beliefs + Recent objective Data = A new and improved belief.
Blocking out recent objective data, feedback, prohibits me from developing improved beliefs. By opening myself to new information, I open myself to the potential of an improved future and a positive outlook. A positive support system around me sets me up for a positive outcome.
As a student of human nature it fascinates me to have people ask “why are you smiling?” “What do you have to be happy about/” I’ve even been accused of liking prison as if bad food and family separation was my goal all along. Negativity is such an accepted part of prison that a smile draws suspicion like Casey Anthony at a kindergarten.
Upon exit from incarceration, the average felon has lots of upside: a fresh start (able it with a handicap). Advantages include, low or no debt, new career, new friends, a chance to develop new habits, education, training, vehicle, home; a chance to do it right this time.
So here it is. The grand revelation (drum roll please, the crowd holds its collective breath). Stop fooling around and start acting like LSU Head Football Coach, Les Miles on Saturday night. Stop making excuses or looking for the approval of others. Find your passion. Make a plan. Execute. Live happy.
I would like to thank those who responded with gifts of NLT Study Bibles. To all of you: many, many thanks, they were all well received. To those who supplied their names:
Alan- My friend, God Bless You
Larry- Thank you, Brother
Sabrina- It’s been ages, and your edition was especially welcome by the man I gave it to. Drop me a line and let me know how you’re doing.
Again, thanks to all of you, I could still use more. Now that some people have them, others come up to me and ask if they can get one. It’s a beautiful thing. God bless you all for your generosity and your help.
Moving along, I apologize for such a gap, but I have been busy. Shortly, you will all see the beginning of a project I have wanted to do, and thanks to a very special person, I have finally started on it. The next entry will be entitled “Crimes and their Punishments”.
It is the first of a multi-part series on prison privatization and its effect on this docentry. It is a very complex issue that as I am only able to scratch the surface of but thanks to the hard work of my friend Dian, who I have never met, I was provided with enough research material to make a start at it.
Thank you all, and God Bless you,
Tony
“A child is not likely to find a Father in God unless he finds something of God in his Father.” –Austin L. Sorenson
“My child, listen to what I say and treasure my commands. Turn your fears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding” – Proverbs 2:1-2 NLT
On July 15, 2010, my son posted something I had written called, “Father’s Day Felons”. That article was written, and posted, after Father’s Day and was a response to the day itself—my own thoughts and feelings, as well as my impressions of what those around me were thinking and feeling.
In that article I wrote, “ A Day that used to be filled with a tremendous amount of pride and happiness suddenly has become a day I will dread, each time it arrives, for as long as I am here.”
Well Father’s Day #2 is right around the corner and while I am pretty certain that most of the thoughts and emotions that I wrote about last year will still be at the forefront of my heart and mind this year when the day actually arrives, I must revise part of the statement I quoted.
I do not dread this Father’s Day. No, I do not dread it at all—in fact , I am EXCITED to see this Father’s Day approaching and I look FORWARD to Father’s Day 2012 because it will be the next to the last one I will spend in prison. My projected release date is about one month before Father’s Day 2014.
Last year I wrote about my pervading sense of personal failure that I felt in relation to my own two children. I still recognize that I failed them both miserably—and in many ways—but I still pray for their forgiveness, understanding, and love every day.
Instead of dreading the day, though, I will use it as a reminder of how a Father IS supposed to act and what a father is supposed to BE.
Instead of dreading the day, I look forward to it and will use it as a marker of time until the day when I can once again hold them and kiss them and tell them I love them with nothing between us but that slight bit of air capable of finding space between us.
On Father’s day in June of 2014, my children will be proud of me. That is my goal. That is my objective. If I cannot achieve that goal in the time I will have spent in prison, then I will have wasted that time and I refuse to do that for I have already wasted enough time in my life.
I have shorthanded enough people who wanted nothing from me but my time and my love and I’ll not deprive them of either of those things again. The Lord has gotten me from Father’s Day I to Father’s Day II and has enabled me to do it with ever-increasing faith, confidence, wisdom, and understanding. He has helped me learn that I am important to a number of people in this world and that it is incumbent upon me to be someone who can be relied upon and looked up to.
For anyone reading his who has a Father in a similar situation as me, being angry and hurt is normal and acceptable but it is also necessary to move beyond that and begin looking away from the past—which got us here—and to begin looking to the future. Which will move us forward.
I would like to take this opportunity to wish a “Happy Father’s Day” to two of the best fathers I know—my son’s stepfather, Russ and my sister’s husband Larry. I thank you both, individually for different reasons, but together for what you have in common—you are both top notch fathers!
And for all of the Father’s who will see this Father’s day pass from behind walls, fences, or wire—this will make it one less we all face in here.
That is something, anyway.
‘All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.’ George Orwell
‘ I have observed something else under the sun: the fastest runner doesn’t always win the race, and the strongest warrior doesn’t always win the battle. The wise sometimes go hungry and the skillful are not necessarily wealthy. And those who are educated don’t always lead successful lives’ Ecclesiastes 9:11 NLT
Life is not equal, nor fair, but right should be right and wrong should be wrong and is shouldn’t matter whether it is a Federal wrong or a state wrong. Right?
Wrong. Not all state crimes are federal crimes and vice versa, but where they are similar, the sentences meted out certainly are most assuredly not.
As I stated in an earlier posting, I was robbed and beaten a couple of years ago and – in the ensuing court case against my assailant – was required to disclose my federal arrest for possession of child pornography to both the state’s attorney as well as the assailant’s attorney.
At one point, the state’s attorney told me that had my charges been state charges instead of federal I would have never gotten a prison sentence – I would have been given probation.
Unfortunately for me – and my family – it was a federal charge and probation is almost never an option.
Take the case of our ‘Goose’.
In a 24 May 2009 story found on www.signonsandiego.com, a federal judge sentenced a 68-year old Vietnam War hero to 37 months in a federal prison for possession of child pornography. This was less than the prosecutor was asking and more than the probation his lawyers sought.
The man was Wade Sanders and he was decorated with the Silver Star, Bronze Star, a Purple Heart, and other Navy Commendations during his service in Vietnam. He had much support throughout his ordeal including a character reference from Sen. John Kerry.
A therapist who had been treating him testified he was not a danger to children, and several mental health experts who examined him concluded he was not a pedophile.
When his seized computers were analyzed, they showed that he frequently viewed ALL kinds of pornography.
Now let’s ganger at the Gander. . .
From a recent issue of “Prison Legal News” we learn that in California on 28 Jan 2011, former Riverside County Probation Officer Elizabeth Z. Nolan pleaded guilty to a felony charge of unlawful intercourse with a minor.
As part of a plea agreement, 16 other counts – including oral copulation with an minor and rape by force or fear – were dropped.
Nolan was accused of having sex with a juvenile offender over a period of several months; at the time her husband was a Riverside County Prosecutor.
She was sentenced to ONE year in jail in February 2011.
TO RECAP:
Our Goose gets 3 years and 1 month for pictures, while the Gander gets 1 year for unlawful intercourse with a minor (and with 16 additional counts dropped).
Hmmmm. . . . .
It is not uncommon in the federal system for people convicted of crimes involving pictures to receive 6-10 -12-15 or more YEARS in federal prison. I’m not talking about those who profit from producing and distributing child pornography.
I am not – in anyway, shape or form – excusing my behavior or anyone else’s who views this material, but we DO need to stop and put things in perspective.
My own sentence was 51 months – one of the shorter sentences among the men with similar charges I have met here. Almost 5 years.
On June 17, 2010 in a Dutch court, five Somali men were convicted of attempting to highjack a cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden in 2009. “Piracy is a serious crime that must be powerfully resisted” said Judge Jan Willem Klein Wolterink.
He sentenced each of them to 5 years in prison.
It is not uncommon for people convicted on the state level of actual ‘hands-on’ crimes against children to receive lesser sentences than those meted out on the federal level for cases involving only pictures. Nor it is unusual – with increased levels of “good time credit” on the state level and the possibility of parole, which the federal government abolished in 1984 – for someone who actually molests or otherwise harms a child to serve 1/3 or even 1/4 of the prison time as that of a federal inmate serving time for possession of pictures only.
The same is also true in drug cases. Federal laws are stricter, with more mandatory minimums than most states. Yet even the states take up more bed space – and money – incarcerating non-violent offenders when violent offenders are allowed to roam the streets.
Most of the laws passed have been brought into existence with much fanfare on behalf of the legislator sponsoring the bill. This “tough on crime” stance can then be parlayed into votes come election time.
Actually, if you want to fight crime, it is necessary to fight 2 of its main causes – poverty and lack of education – am putting more people in prison for greater periods of time accomplished neither while draining valuable resources that could be used for both.
Is the American public any safer or are we just wasting money we don’t have? Is the average man, woman, or child really at increased risk in this day and age or has the media just used the saturation and sensationalization of isolated cases as a means to capture its audience and foment fear?
None of country’s prison policies make much sense, but those policies do make a lot of $$$$ !
The truth is that so many billions of dollars are at stake here that it is all about profits and votes.
There has been much written about the prison – industrial complex that has risen from almost nothing in 1980 to the behemoth it is today.
Although what I am capable of doing here is no more than scratching the surface, I will put together some statistics for next time which may cause someone to delve further into the whole problem on their own.
Perhaps it will be easier to understand how any talk of shrinking the prison systems raises the protective nature in people – not to protect you, but to protect their jobs, profits and stock portfolios.
Interesting stuff, indeed.
But wait!!
What about the “little old lady”?
According to USA Today, back in December 2009, a school bus stopped to discharge a 5-year old Karla Campos in Marietta, Georgia. The child was struck and killed by a car driven by an elderly woman who – apparently – panicked when she saw the bus and little girl and plunged her foot down on the gas pedal thinking it was the brake.
The purpose of the article in the USA Today was to announce that Edith Main Anderson, age 87, had been released from prison after serving 76 days of her 3-year sentence.
What in the world are we doing?????
“The contagion of crime is like that of the plague. Criminals collected together corrupt each other. They are worse than ever when, at the termination of their punishment, they return to society.” Napoleon Bonaparte
“To reject the law is to praise the wicked; to obey the law is to fight them.” Proverbs 28:4 NLT
I have given thought to the idea of a series with this title for some time now. My thoughts centered on the notion that I would try to accomplish several different purposes as it progressed.
The first purpose would be to demonstrate, through various collected newspaper clippings and magazine articles, a disparity in sentencing for crimes in this country that is just too pronounced to ignore.
The second would be to raise awareness as to alternatives to incarceration that are available now and would be more effective, less costly, and less destructive to the family as a whole than incarceration, for it is important to note that the collateral damage to families that is a component of incarceration is beyond calculation.
This last purpose would be to establish how incarceration has – in the last 30 years – evolved into nothing other than legal slave-trading in the 21st century, and how – while the cost to the taxpayer to support these intentionally draconian, and lobbied, prison terms continue to skyrocket – individuals and secret companies continue to pocket astronomical profits in ways that should be considered unethical at best, and illegal at worst.
Let me first say that I am not an advocate of lawlessness nor am I a coddler of criminals. I believe we must be a nation of laws, that people should be expected to abide by those laws and – if they choose not to – there must be consequences.
Individuals must stand up and take responsibility for their own actions. A growing part of the societal problem we face is that we have allowed ourselves to always seek excuses for our behavior, or sought out someone else to blame.
While supportive of me and certainly well intentioned – to say nothing or appreciated – the reader’s recent comments that I was too hard on myself and that the internet – as the devils playground – was to blame are way off mark.
In fact, this entire world is the devil’s playground, but simply because that is the case doesn’t mean that we have to succumb to all of the temptations placed before us.
The simple fact of the matter is that it was a lack of character and a life of living contrary to God’s basic laws of morality, decency, and respect that enabled me, over time, to descend lower and lower morality to the point where I was willing to romp in the devil’s playground.
Once someone has broken the laws of this nation, what should be done with them? That is one of the questions we will look at. Mind you, this is not a series about “sex offenses” exclusively, although they will certainly be included.
Rather, I hope that what is ultimately written – and read – here will help people see how ridiculously ineffective, immoral, immature, wasteful and self-serving our approach to problem solving is.
Perhaps some younger, sharper, more focused minds than mine will grasp a thread of truth from my ramblings and gather enough of that thread to weave a tapestry of insight into the fact that not only is the ruling class of this generation leaving them with the enormous burden of an incomprehensible and inexcusable government debt, but we are also locking people away for such lengths of time as to make them – upon their release – their problem as loser.
It is not only unfair, it is not necessary, and the unequal treatment of criminals can only serve to point out that something is certainly wrong and in need of repair.
Next time, we will begin by looking at disparity in sentencing and we will look at specific cases.
As an example, I will leave you with these two cases to ponder- one state, one federal.
Perhaps someone out there can tell me the thought process behind it all.
The State Case
On February 14, 2011, Beverly Hill, defense attorney Michael H. Inman pleaded no contest (same as guilty) to a felony charge of trying to smuggle 14.25 grams (1/2 ounce) of heroin into a Los Angeles County Jail where he was visiting two incarcerated clients.
The Federal Case
In Boise, Idaho a Florida man – Jeffrey Dickman pleaded guilty to a charge of guiding a deer hunt in Southeaster Idaho without a license and illegally shipping deer meat across state lines.
Their Sentences:
-The Heroin smuggler was sentenced to 120 days in jail and 3 years probation. He could get out in 60 days.
-The deer meat smuggler was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison. (Supervised release unspecified) He will have to serve 15 months.
Hmmm. . .
The Oakdale Chronicles 