Fri Apr 24, 2015, 12:27 PM
nadinbrzezinski (136,009 posts)
The Prison System, a Forgotten Place
I know I just started to scratch the surface of this... trust me, I still got reams to read
April 24, 2015 (San Diego) Here are some names you might not have heard off:
DeAndre Cooper (we interviewed his mother Barbara Reid), or for that matter Tory Robinson. You surely know of Aaron Harvey and Brandon Duncan (goes by the stage name Tiny Doo,) since the charges were dropped. What you do not know is the immense social and economic cost they all have borne because of the chargers (and in one case plea bargains) brought against them.
This is not a story usually told. First I wanted to introduce to some names. What is the cost that we, as a society, are paying for the immense growth of the prison system? And what are the cost minority communities, in particular African Americans have already paid for this?
Yes, I can hear some people say, but if they did the crime…the men I have mentioned above did not. One was, according to his mother and community advocates, pressured, to take a plea deal for a crime he did not commit, nor had knowledge off. This is part of the system, as it were, get those plea deals and avoid an open court.
Two others had all charges dropped, for two after a year, and at a great personal and economic cost. Then there is Robinson who spent 17 days in Jail, was pressured to take a plea deal, lost one of his two jobs, in the end had no charges filed, and he still owes the courts thousands of dollars. He is behind paying his bills, and he still has to explain those 17 days to people. All this is because of a traffic stop that could have ended in a tragedy. Why did the officers stop him? It was a broken taillight, this is a story we are now very familiar with.
http://reportingsandiego.com/2015/04/24/the-prison-system-a-forgotten-place/
OMG... they 'published' that.
truedelphi (30,492 posts)
1. Combine good old fashioned racism with the ability for an industry to make gobs and gobs Of money, and you end up with today's "Justice System."
The fix is in. If a person is wrongfully harmed by actions of a large firm, they have no recourse.
And large firms figure out this way and that way of getting people arrested.
Did you know that Wells Fargo has monetary investments in California's prison system? And so they have figured out a whole new category of crime to use against unsuspecting and would be bank customers.
In April of 2011, Wells Fargo attempted to jail me for "forgery" when all I was doing was attempting to cash a check from a minor inheritance, and use that money to start a checking account. Did they call up the person who issued the check to me? (Whose name and phone number were on said check.)
No, they did not. The employees of said Wells Fargo stated that they are not allowed to make phone calls out of state, but apparently they can attempt to have a person arrested based on their whim.
I had a seizure on the bank floor due to this harassment! This seizure occurred two days after I had had a full physical exam, and was told I was in perfect health.
The local District Attorney was absolutely mortified when I explained to him what had happened to me.
My doctor was mortified also - and when I re-visited him some two months later, he explained that he had read in a newspaper of another person to whom this accusation had happened. That person ended up in jail for three days, which then cost them their job.
And lawyers in California will not take on a case against Wells Fargo, in part, I suspect, because Wells Fargo buys out the judges!
Yeah.... no one is ever guilty.
nadinbrzezinski (136,009 posts)
2. Yup, we accidentally started covering the courts
literally local activist went.... what do you know of California Criminal Code 182.5? Nothing. So we pulled on thread and went HHOOOLLLYYYY SHIIIITTT.
Nothing like siting in a court room and hear the DA try to get people on to trial over something they had no knowledge off, over in one case, rap music.
