Tragic Traps: Make a Mistake in America and You May Pay a Heavy Price for Decades

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



Tragic Traps: Make a Mistake in America and You May Pay a Heavy Price for Decades

By Joe Bageant, CounterPunch. Posted June 17, 2008.

Unlucky citizens who fall victim to the U.S. justice system are treated like profit centers to be squeezed without mercy.



Late at night through my window by the computer I can see my neighbor Stokes bicycling at 10 p.m. to the local convenience store to buy groceries. Not only is that an expensive way to feed one's self, but it is the only way for old Stokes to cop some grubs without getting thrown in jail. Seriously. As a convicted sex offender, he is not allowed to be near young women in a supermarket checkout line. Nor is he allowed to visit a park, or even his own grandchild, even though he is not a child molester by the court's own admission. He is not allowed to drink a beer. In fact, he is not even allowed to read Playboy Magazine.

A dozen or so years ago Stokes, now 66 with a gray ponytail, an altogether gentle soul who labors under the illusion he looks like Willie Nelson, (and even has a framed photo of Willie on his wall to invite comparison). Got caught by police in a, shall we say, "a vehicular sexual incident" with a married woman. They were both drunk, big deal. That happens in beer joints. To make a long story short, by the time they got to court, the lady's testimony was that it was all against her will, which being a married woman, solved a lot of problems for her. That resulted in Stokes being convicted as a sex offender, while his public defender all but slept through the trial.

To make matters worse, Stokes had an unregistered handgun stashed in his car. Stupid, I know, but rednecks are often like that, and I'd be willing to bet there are more unregistered handguns than registered ones around here. This may horrify urban liberals, but legal or not, it is the common practice of tens of thousands of people down here in the southern climes of our great nation. It's also common practice nationwide to many thousands of cab drivers, night clerks, hotel parking valets, bill collectors, repo men, single women and god only knows how many others. At any rate, thanks to the gun that he never touched, Stokes was prosecuted for armed abduction for sexual purposes and did ten years.

He's been out for years now. But he was released into an entirely different world than he left -- one that seems scripted by Adam Smith and Hanging Judge Roy Bean. As a convicted felon, he has been released from prison to serve a new sentence to serve time as a profit center for our economy. In truth, he has been one from the day he was charged.

First off, he was a profit center for the prison where he served his time. Now it is fairly common knowledge that America's burgeoning system of privatized prisons, "super jails," and related services has been a boon for corporations such as Corrections Corporation of America, Geo Group (formerly Wackenhut Corrections Corp.) and their investors. Prisoner leasing programs such as Florida's, which rents out prison labor for less than 50 cents an hour to private industry in the name of "job training," make building more prisons an attractive option for state governments and investors. It also makes recidivism desirable, since it assures the prison labor pool. Somewhere between 1 percent and 2 percent of Americans are behind bars, locked up at any given time, and as many more are on probation or under state monitoring. Obviously, capitalist style punishment is a solid financial investment. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/rights/88371/

[iamjoy]

1. I've Started To Wonder

I've started to wonder about this whole labeling of people as "sex offenders" - some one who does something stupid but ultimately harmless can get labeled a sex offender and then get lumped in with the real trash.

To give you an example, here in (yes) Florida there was a "Road Rage" incident in which the passenger on one car mooned the passengers in another car. The other car happened to have a twelve year old. For a time prosecutors considered charging the mooner with a sex crime.

Now, road rage can be a problem and the guy should not have mooned people. But that's just a dumb prank and most kids laugh at that sort of thing, they don't really feel victimized and aren't traumatized. If anything kids are more likely to be frightened by aggressive driving and angry gestures. Labeling stupid stuff like mooning as a sex crime trivializes real abuse.

Beyond that, what about nineteen and twenty year olds having consensual sex with people a year or two below the age of consent? I remember being fifteen and having a huge crush on a twenty year old guy. He sort of tried, and I was tempted, but kept my wits about me and he didn't pursue it. If we had done it, he could have been labeled a sex offender - which would have been a joke.

Really, we've begun prosecuting stupidity.

[cap]

2. the other side of the coin is

taking away means by which prosecutors can use in rape cases.

I disagree with Joe about this one. He may be right about his friend ... and you may be right about the mooning incident... but there are a lot of cases that do need this kind of sensitivity.

[ret5hd]

3. Yes, better that 10 innocent idiots be jailed than 1 guilty go free.

And if anybody could be jailed for syntax and grammar, you should be making your escape to Mexico by now.

[cap]

4. why are you talking to me like this?