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HORROR STORIES
Without Equity there can be no Justice
Here are a few to dwell upon, selected
because of the constancy of their occurrence in the system.
There is Dan, 29 years old at the time he
went to prison. He was married and had a one-year-old son. All his life Dan had been a “good boy”
according to all who knew him. He is talented and kind, thoughtful and
respectful of others. He
Dan started selling drugs. Why? He cannot
tell you but knows it grew out of greed, carelessness and abandonment of what
he was taught and actually believes.
To us it is human error.
He did not plead guilty and was sentenced
after conviction for 15 years. Included in his sentence was the fact that he
owned a gun. It was legally owned, was never a part of his activities. In
fact, there is nothing in his record of violence and the gun was locked away
in this house. But the system calls on the judge to add on prison years for
the legal act of owning a gun, which, you should know, was not even mentioned
to the jury. This happens every day.
Then there is the calculation of the amount
of drugs involved. In Dan’s case a fellow Dan knew and who knew that
Dan sold drugs, was charged in an unrelated case. He testified that Dan had
bought a substantial amount of marijuana from him. Dan had never bought
anything from him. It cam down to Dan’s word against that of the man
who was desperate to get some time off his sentence for “handing the
prosecution” someone else. That
also happens every day and is one of the real horror stories of our day and a
grave cause of unjust sentences. The
role of the snitch has become legend in the massive War on Drugs.
So Dan languishes in prison, in debt for a
fine he cannot possibly pay while he is warehoused in prison. His little boy who
loves him and needs him and wife who has to go it alone in a financial
situation that desperately calls out for the absent father’s help,
struggle.. What possibly is being served by Dan’s long sentence? Like most, he realized his errors long
before his trial finished and the prison door closed behind him. Rather than stay in the maximum security
prison for two years and then warehoused in a “prison camp.” he could
just as well be back in the community. Instead the cost to tax payers of over
$30,000 a year continues to run year after year. His son will be 18 years and when he is
home under the present system. With his prefect record of no problems locked
up and the fact that eh studied college courses and took computer training,
he cannot even be paroled. Why, because there is no provision for
parole. The legislators, the President
and those presently in power do not thing that parole is a good thing.
Than pain goes on. And the horror is
magnified my the many others in similar situations
And the “Drug War” goes on with
the government pumping billions of dollars into an effort that has proved
itself worthless. Drug offenses and drug addiction advances at a increasing
pace. The money doing down that rat
hole could be used to enhance the education of our youth and treat the
addicts. We tried prohibition once and if failed to stop alcohol abuse. When
the profit was taken out of the trafficking, we realized a drastic downturn
in the use and distribution of alcohol. By decriminalizing drugs, we can
realize the same benefits since the crime is attendant to the illegal
production and distribution of a substance that can be controlled.
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