Last week I shared the story of James and his fight to beat his speeding ticket. During this adventure and documenting it in my daily dose column I uncovered just how many tickets this little justice court was processing in a week and the value of those tickets. I said I would at some point go research the county court system and I still intend too, but today I am going to try and explain to folks both here in the USA and around the world just why so many folks are locked up behind bars in this country.
People around the world look at the United States and our incarceration numbers and are astounded at the number of people in prison here; we lead the world in having people caged up for crimes committed. But are all those people locked up in custody actually guilty of a crime? The answer might surprise you, and the answer is more than likely “no”.
This is a complex issue and there are many reasons why people end up in prison who never committed the crime they had been charged with. The primary reason boils down to the financial resources of the person charged to properly defend themselves when arrested and charged with a crime. The second reason is judicial immunity of the government employees involved in cases that have lead to such high numbers of people ending up in prison. Between these two items it has come down to the reality that over 95% of all criminal charges are no longer adjudicated before a jury, where the jury will decide the innocence or guilt of the person charged.
All too often people who don’t have the financial resources to hire “qualified” legal help end up being charged with crimes that carry some very stiff prison sentences if found guilty of the crime they are charged with. The so called “justice system” has a way of extracting guilty pleas from innocent people through the means of plea bargaining. The fear of very lengthy prison sentences has lead to innocent people accepting a shorter prison sentence for a crime they did not commit, in order to avoid the lengthy prison sentence if they are found guilty at trial.
In the USA indigent people who cannot afford to hire a lawyer can have one appointed and paid for by the courts. How nice we are as a society to help those poor folks. This situation could best be described using the following analogy.
Two baseball teams are playing a game and one team’s pitcher couldn’t make it to the game so the manager of the opposing team lends the team without their pitcher one of his players; to stand in and pitch for them. Do you really think that the pitcher who is being “loaned out” is going to try and keep his regular team mates from hitting and scoring runs? Hell no, he’s not, it is a sham and any person in their right mind knows this. The court scenario is no different than the baseball diamond, the game is played for entertainment purposes and just like the game, justice isn’t found in the judicial system any longer, it is also for entertainment at best.
Given the choice of a potential 15 years in prison for a conviction on armed robbery charges or 5 five years for a guilty plea to a lesser charge of improper display of a firearm even folks who committed neither will accept the five years. In most cases they have been already incarcerated awaiting trial for a year or more because they couldn’t post bail and that time spent in jail counts toward their prison time as time served. Then they also have a chance at early parole if they mind their p’s and q’s while locked up, so the reality is they might spend an additional 18 to 24 months locked up before they can get out. The prospects of that scenario are better to them than the 15 year sentence if convicted.
The second part of the equation that has lead to the large prison population is that we have way too many laws that we are held accountable too. Here in the USA ignorance of the law is no excuse, you are expected to know the laws and abide by those laws. Far too many things have been criminalized in the USA and the Supreme Court no longer hears cases regarding new laws but instead applies what is called a “rational basis test”. Trust that it is anything but rational, but that is for another time to discuss.
Law enforcement people and court employees have something called “judicial prosecutorial immunity”, and there are two types of immunity. Did you know that prosecutors cannot be sued for their professional misconduct in court?
Qualified immunity applies to all public officials, and it essentially says that even if your rights or civil liberties have been violated the official cannot be sued if they acted in good faith of the law. With immunity these police and court officials are basically given a free pass in order to keep things flowing through the courts, it is like an assembly line building widgets, just keep the line moving. Arrest, charge, prosecute then plea bargain and ship the defendant off to prison. It is easier and faster than trying cases, and even though the sentences are generally less lengthy there is a constant inflow of prisoners to replace the ones who are exiting the prison system.
This corruption of the system has gone unnoticed by the general public, but it is by design and plan of the government system. The system that was set in place using juries was to insure that justice is served; the current method of operation essentially takes the jury out of the equation for over 95% of the cases. Juries actually have the responsibility to judge both the law and the facts of the case; this is something that most juries are never informed of. If a jury is properly instructed they can determine that a law is unjust and can find the defendant not guilty based on their judgment of the law. This is a well kept secret in the court rooms; plenty of juries could find plenty of laws that could be considered unjust or unlawful if the jurors only knew their role.
Prosecutors base their performance on the number of convictions that they facilitate, just watch any election where the county prosecutor is up for re-election, they will always be touting how many convictions they have gotten while they have been in office. They don’t say that they have made sure that justice has been served; they know damn well that they have strong armed plenty of people into accepting plea bargains when the person had nothing to do with the crime charged. That court appointed attorney will help facilitate these plea bargains by telling the defendant this will be your quickest and safest way to get back home, 18 to 24 months and you’re out, or it could be 15 years before you will ever walk the streets again.
So, for those of you who wonder why the USA is a prison factory I hope this has opened your eyes to what is taking place in the “judicial system” here. Most people here in the USA don’t know the truth about what goes on here, and those people are the same folks who try and avoid jury duty when called. Next time you are called for jury duty keep in mind that damn near a hundred people have been put in prison without even getting the chance for you to hear their case.
Get informed and do you part to change the system, the vote you cast as a juror has more impact than any vote you can cast in an election every two or four years.
There is an organization, The Fully Informed Jury Association; they have plenty of great information that as a prospective juror you should really know. Please check them out at www.fija.org , it is your duty to be informed; don’t let the safe guards of a jury trial be further corrupted by your lack of concern, you may just find yourself at some point answering bogus charges. We can make a difference, we just need to try harder and speak up for justice.
Until next time,
@sultnpapper
