Life in Prison

[pscot]

So you’re a judge, and Sharanda P. Jones comes before you for sentencing for conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine.

She’s a 32-year-old mom with a 9-year-old daughter and no prior arrests, but she has been caught up in a drug sweep that has led to 105 arrests in her Texas town. Everyone arrested is black.

There are no drugs found on Jones, but her supposed co-conspirators testify against her in exchange for reduced sentences. The whole case is dubious, but she has been convicted. What’s your sentence?

You have little choice. Given the presumptions of the case, she gets a mandatory minimum sentence of life without the possibility of parole. Jump to today and already Jones has spent 14 years in prison and is expected to die behind bars — for a first offense.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/14/opinion/kristof-serving-life-for-this.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0

[BronxBoy]

1. Heartbreaking.....

Dicky Joe Jackson was a trucker whose 2-year-old son, Cole, needed a bone-marrow transplant to save his life. The family raised $50,000 through community fund-raisers, not nearly enough for the transplant, and Jackson tried to earn the difference by carrying meth in his truck. He has now been in prison for the last 17 years; when he lost his last appeal, he divorced his wife of 19 years so that she could start over in her life. The federal prosecutor in the case acknowledged: “I saw no indication that Mr. Jackson was violent, that he was any sort of large-scale narcotics trafficker, or that he committed his crimes for any reason other than to get money to care for his gravely ill child.”

[pscot]

2. And unnecessary

We're playing in the same league as the Saudis, China and South Africa.

[bobGandolf]

5. YUP! n/t

[BlueJazz]

3. You know...If Aliens ever DO visit earth and make themselves known, probably the first thing...

..out of their mouth things will be "We came in peace but after seeing how you treat each other, maybe it's better if we
exterminate you Hu-Mans and let the planet start over."

And I wouldn't blame them...

[pscot]

6. the President could do something about these sentences

if he cared to. It would take zero effort and very little money to set up a volunteer commission to review life sentences with a view to possible commutation. It would cost nothing to commute the most egregiously unjust sentences. If he cared to.

[BlueJazz]

7. The idea that entire lives are thrown away like some cheap fast-food item saddens me.

We read about prosecutors and even judges who have held back evidence that would have changed the verdict
in many court cases....and years later the guilty person is found to be innocent.
Yet, no harm or even inconvenience, much less punishment, is placed upon these individuals.

I know this sounds a little silly but: I didn't sign up for this cruel bullshit world.

[pscot]

8. It's a technocrats world

They think they own us.

[Aristus]

4. Oh come on, people. Get a grip! How else are we supposed to grow the private prison industry?

Think of all those shareholders! Who's looking out for them?



America: Land of the Incarcerated.

[marble falls]

9. Mandatory life sentences are a chicken sh#t form of the death penalty. And equally as wrong and ....

unfairly meted out. Its political way to make the public think half-assed and hack politicians/posecuters are doing something about "crime".

[blkmusclmachine]

10. Ugh.