Our two-tiered injustice system

According to a recent Gallup poll, only 14% of the public has confidence in our criminal justice system. This is true for every political faction.
Even Republicans, who are in middle of their own crime wave fearmongering, have no faith in the criminal justice system. The primary reason for this doubt is the widespread belief that there is more than one justice system.

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The media prefers to focus on racial disparities, because that's what the ruling class wants.
That's not to say that there aren't unmistakable racial disparities. It's that only if you study the system from the point of view of class are the inequalities logical, measurable, and examples are extremely easy to find.

Cash Bail
Probably the most well-known class discrimination involves bail.

U.S. jails detain more than 700,000 people each day, almost three-quarters of whom have not been convicted of a crime...
The pretext of the cash bail system is to ensure defendants show up for their day in court, but critics say it criminalizes poverty and creates a two-tiered justice system. The median bail amount for felonies is $10,000.

About 40% of the country struggles to come up with $400 in an emergency, so $10K is completely outside of possibility for most people.
Not surprisingly, those that can't afford bail get less mercy from the injustice system.

One 2018 study finds that people who can’t make bail wait an average of 50 to 200 days for trial, creating losses in employment and housing. They are also more likely to get harsher sentences if convicted, or plead guilty just to speed up the process and get out sooner.

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If defendants are credited for time served, those in jail are more likely to plead guilty. Imprisoned defendants are much less capable of preparing an adequate defense.
It isn't hard to find good examples.

In 2015, Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old woman arrested during a routine traffic stop in Texas, allegedly committed suicide after being in jail for three days because she could not afford to pay a bondsman’s fee of $500 on her $5,000 bail. In New York City, a judge sent 16-year-old Kalief Browder to jail on Rikers Island in 2010 after he could not afford the $3,000 bond imposed for stealing a backpack. Browder’s chance to make bail was eventually revoked, and he spent three years imprisoned, two of those in solitary confinement. His charges were eventually dropped and he returned home at the age of 20, but the damage to his mental health was already done. In 2015, he committed suicide at his family’s home.

Cash bail for the wealthy

There is no shortage of contrasting class examples.

Joseph Warren sees no sunlight and never gets fresh air. The 60-year-old San Francisco man, locked up for more than a month, said he has become suicidal, rarely eats the jail food and tries to sleep as much as possible when he’s not crying in his small cell. As a gay man, he is afraid he will be assaulted in the shower.

Warren is awaiting trial on welfare fraud charges. Charged with stealing roughly $5,000 from the government – an accusation he denies – a judge recently set his bail at $75,000, which he can’t afford. His only options are to plead guilty or stay incarcerated.

In the same region, another criminal defendant is preparing for trial in a very different setting. Tiffany Li, a wealthy real estate heir who is accused of conspiring to murder the father of her children, is able to remain under house arrest after posting $4m in cash and pledging $62m in property for her bail. She has a multimillion-dollar mansion 10 miles south of Warren’s jail.

While inability to pay bail frequently means longer prison sentences, a 2017 study found that federal judges frequently assign fraudsters and white collar criminals shorter sentences than what’s recommended by the sentencing guidelines.
Here's another example.

Henry Ruggs was arrested after a tragic Nov. 2 crash in Las Vegas in which a 23-year-old woman and her dog were killed. It was revealed that Ruggs was legally drunk at the time. His blood alcohol level was 0.16%, which is twice the legal limit for drivers in Nevada. Moreover, while intoxicated, he was driving at speeds of 156 mph before the accident. Despite this, Ruggs was released from jail on a $150,000 bail the day after the accident and put on house arrest, a luxury that most people without a six-figure income would not have been granted.
... However, Ruggs, a black man, was granted these benefits that most certainly would not have been viable if he was an ordinary citizen.

Public Defenders
If the cash bail system is a house fire, the public defender system is a five-alarm crisis.

In Montana, an all too familiar constitutional crisis is underway. Pretrial defendants who cannot afford a lawyer are languishing behind bars, awaiting the legal representation they are entitled to because public defenders face untenable caseloads. In response, Rhonda Lindquist, who leads the Office of the State Public Defender, was held in contempt of court and fined $8,500 by a county district judge. Lindquist’s overburdened and understaffed office was declining too many cases, the judge found, denying indigent defendants facing criminal charges their constitutional right to legal representation.

Lindquist’s offense is not one of negligence — she has tried to secure additional funding to hire more lawyers so that every indigent defendant’s right to counsel is protected; so far, lawmakers have been utterly unresponsive.

It isn't just Montana. In Oregon and New Mexico caseloads are significantly higher than the current systems can constitutionally support. Even when a defendant does get a public defender, the quality can sometimes be so poor that it is harmful.

An article in the Washington Post noted how Texas death row inmate Hank Skinner raised concerns about his court-appointed attorney. He requested DNA testing on evidence found at the scene of the murder of his girlfriend. The Post reported his court-appointed attorney disregarded his request and didn’t present this important DNA evidence at the trial,
The article noted the judge appointed a friend to defend Skinner. The attorney in question had earlier prosecuted him on assault charges.

State and county budgets for public defenders account for roughly 2.5 percent of total spending on criminal justice every year. You would think that if you wanted to spend less on locking people up, a good place to start is to help make sure the innocent don't go to prison.

In October of 2001, Robert Durst was charged with the murder and dismemberment of his neighbor. Bail was set at $300,000. Durst paid, and was released. A week later, he didn’t show up for a hearing and became listed as a fugitive. Two months later, and several states away, he was arrested for shoplifting. He had $500 in cash on his person. His rental car contained another $37,000 in cash, two guns, and the driver’s license of the murder victim. Durst proceeded to hire John Waldron, one of Pennsylvania’s “Super Lawyers.” Even though Durst admitted to dismembering the victim’s body, he was acquitted of the murder.

Prison Privatization
By now the private prison complex, like cash bail, has become a hot political topic. It's perverse incentives are obvious, and its outcomes are unsurprising (increasing the number of inmates and the length of sentences).
That is NOT what I am referring to when I say "privatization". Instead I'm referring to stuff like this.

Two decades after her release from prison, Teresa Beatty feels she is still being punished.

When her mother died two years ago, the state of Connecticut put a lien on the Stamford home she and her siblings inherited. It said she owed $83,762 to cover the cost of her 2 1/2 year imprisonment for drug crimes.

Now, she's afraid she'll have to sell her home of 51 years, where she lives with two adult children, a grandchild and her disabled brother.

“I'm about to be homeless,” said Beatty, 58, who in March became the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the state law that charges prisoners $249 a day for the cost of their incarceration. “I just don't think it's right, because I feel I already paid my debt to society. I just don't think it's fair for me to be paying twice.”

Charging an inmate for their incarceration (aka pay-to-stay), at a rate of a luxury hotel room, creates the same, or worse, incentives that a private prison creates.
Until recently Connecticut used to collect prison debt by attaching an automatic lien to every inmate for the following 20 years after they were released. This included things like insurance settlements, inheritances, lottery winnings, even money awarded to inmates in lawsuits over alleged abuse by prison guards.

It's not just the pay-to-stay system. It's the cost of a phone call as well.

The cost to incarcerated people of communicating with the outside world is staggering: A 15-minute conversation with a loved one costs $5.74 on average; in some jurisdictions one minute costs more than one dollar; and that is not counting hidden fees. These are hefty figures even for the well-off, but incarcerated individuals are disproportionately low-income — and inmates’ families end up having to choose between speaking with their fathers or daughters or spouses and buying, for example, lifesaving medicine. This is an obvious free-market failure: Prisons and jails contract with the correction telecom industry based less on getting the best service at the least cost and more on raking in the most generous kickbacks. The industry earns itself a more-than-comfortable $1.4 billion per year as a result, while the people it supposedly serves struggle to afford human connection.

Phone calls are just the most obvious example of a privatized prison system. There's also the price gouging for a bar of soap, a towel, and food.
Let me repeat that this all happens in public prisons.

Wall Street Justice

Matt Taibbi knows a few things about Wall Street corruption and their impunity.

1. HSBC (Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation): The company admitted to laundering up to $7 billion for Central American drug cartels. It also allegedly supplied more than $1 billion to Al Rajhi Bank of Saudi Arabia, whose founder was an original benefactor of al-Qaeda and whom was caught supplying travelers' checks to Chechen extremists. A long list of other alleged crimes include funneling money to Iran, North Korea and the Sudan, countries listed as state sponsors of terrorism. HSBC paid a $1.9 billion civil fine (equal to about five weeks of revenue for the company), but neither the company or any of its employees faced criminal charges.

5. Wells Fargo: The bank certified 6,320 home loans for federal backing through 2010, despite having internally assessed the loans and found them seriously deficient. No criminal charges were brought against the company or its executives.

9. Goldman Sachs: The bank underwrote more than $11 billion in federally backed mortgages (as well as billions in mortgage-backed products), despite bank managers knowing that most of these loans were toxic. Goldman Sachs didn't inform regulators of this knowledge and tried to speed up efforts to divest itself of the loans to unsuspecting customers. No criminal charges or fines were directed at the bank. Fabrice Tourre, far from the CEO of the company, was the only executive to pay any fines, after he was found liable for misleading investors in a civil court.

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despite you desiring to sell me a bridge, which I am not prepared to purchase at this time, although I am considering it, I have nevertheless been a defense attorney for 36 years.
I was willing to help the county judge by taking on court appointed cases last 4 of years. 30 cases. I have been paid for 1 by the county.
I took myself off the court appointed list, but last week, the judge asked if I would accept just this one case. I did. He might want to sell me a bridge. Who knows?
White men are ALWAYS offered plea bargains too sweet to turn down. The wealthier, the better the deal. After all, they add $ to the economy. 98% of criminal cases resolve in plea bargains.
White women, much the same.
POC...no. End of discussion. Prison.
Bond. In Texas, that is the only state I am licensed, after so many days, you can get a zero cost bond, depending on the grade of the charge. (Personal recognizance if you ask, if anyone advises you in jail to ask, you can get court appointed attorney to seek a lower bond if you are indigent within 48 hours.) By that time, you have served out your sentence. Plead no contest, go home.
The cost of a bond is very significant, as is the jail time required to get a PR bond.
There should be a better way to get defendants to show up in court. We live in a surveillance state, after all. In small communities, the owner of the bail bond company just might be the cousin of the sheriff, or the nephew of the justice of the peace who is setting the bond.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@on the cusp @on the cusp Being a US citizen instead of a Canadian citizen it was a little bit different for me but I got to see how it works.
This arrest was in the late 80's, or early 90's, so I may forget some details but as someone at the time said to me that "having no money is not illegal, so you can't be held in jail for that reason".
What would keep you in jail pretrial is if you were a threat to society or a flight risk.
Otherwise a Canadian citizen is released with a Court date scheduled, but I was not a Canadian so I was told a Canadian citizen, or someone owning property in BC could sign for my release and if I failed to appear they owed the Court (in my case) $1,500.

A very good system in my opinion and even though previously for almost 15 years I'd lived, worked and had a family in BC (moving back to Texas a a bad move) and I knew nothing about it, so after I was put in a holding cell after booking the first thing I did was look on the walls for bail bonds phone numbers scribbled on the walls (like in the US) by prisoners and there were none.
Later on I was told they were banned, and once again that incarceration couldn't be based on a lack of money.

Long story short. When a Canadian musician friend of mine got back to Vancouver after his tour of the Province he signed the papers for my attorney and I was released with a notice to appear in Court in 15 days, which of course I did.

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@on the cusp I sold the bridge to another sucker buyer.
I'm afraid that you waited too long.

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soryang's picture

So the while the state whittles away at the justice budget, public defenders are judged by how much state money and court time they consume on behalf of defending their clients. PDs who do routine pre-trial discovery by deposition of police and state witnesses against their client are viewed as "trouble makers" by the court and their superiors in the PD office. Requesting money for expert witnesses, to review lab findings, psych results, etc., in more than one percent of cases results in career unfavorable outcomes and perhaps worse - retaliation. Go along and get along, or else. If one requests a trial and loses, the judge will retaliate against the client/defendant by awarding the maximum prison term possible although this is unethical. imo.

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語必忠信 行必正直

@soryang
We should be ashamed as a nation for being the biggest mass incarcerator in the world.
Actually helping the public defenders getting the innocent to go free is the first, and most important step, to ending that.

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even for minor offenses. Here in Florida if you get a speeding ticket and the fine is $150.00 and you can't pay, the court has partnered with a company to pay your fine and let you make payments to them. So, your $150.00 ticket, becomes four payments of $50.00. Just more ways to keep the poor from having any money.

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dystopian's picture

Hey GJ,

Did anyone check to see if that 14% was the 14% highest income percentile, that basically thinks they can buy it? Askin' for a freind.

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

My comments log seems to have been FUBAR'd somehow; "Page 1" does not show my most recent comments, it shows comments from months ago. I am a little concerned about that.

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

snoopydawg's picture

@The Liberal Moonbat

Be patient.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@snoopydawg I didn't realize site maintenance wasn't over (since I could see and use it again by that point).

All's well that ends well, I guess.

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

@The Liberal Moonbat
the Community Content page, then go the bottom of the page and click the "Last" link, then work your way backwards through the pages.

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