How the Criminal Justiced System Works in 1 Minute [video]

How the Criminal Justice System Works in 1 Minute [video]- thedailysheeple.com

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For what it's worth:

"As a young lawyer from the books that I'd read
I thought justice and law were the same.
But I soon put such juvenile thoughts from my mind
and I studied the rules of the Game!"
- Author unknown

"I'm against the media so taunting us with the crimes committed by our neighbors, that we virtually hurl ourselves into the arms of the police demanding protection they only too willingly give - provided we adopt their view of our Bill of Rights as a pesky collection of loopholes through which criminals are permitted to escape." With Justice for None - Destroying an American Myth, by Gerry Spence (Attorney)

Recommended reading:

Hillary, I Mean, Torvald for President!
Government Cages, and the Criminals In Charge - lewrockwell.com
Orange is the New Black, by Piper Kerman (and also my post by the same title: Orange Is The New Black)
Corrupt From Top to Bottom: Paul Craig Roberts on the US Court System - lewrockwell.com
Mean Justice: A Town's Terror, a Prosecutor's Power, and a Betrayal of Innocence -by Edward Hume

Recommended song:

There But For Fortune

Government Cages and the Criminals In Charge

Government Cages, and the Criminals In Charge - lewrockwell.com

"...America’s system of mass incarceration, in which we today imprison 25 percent of all the world’s prisoners although Americans are only 5 percent of the global population...most prisoners are poor and never had adequate legal defense...people of color in our urban 'internal colonies' are worth nothing on the streets but, in cages, each generates $40,000 to $50,000 a year for corporations"

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The following quote comes from a small newsletter called Justice Matters (fall issue, 2004):

"According to information provided by the State of Washington, more than 90% of felony defendants were indigent at the time of there arrest."

Recommended reading (my posts)

Orange Is The New Black
Psychology Test For Today: Pick The One That Doesn't Fit

Recommended movie:

The Shawshank Redemption

Since 1980 California Has Built One College Campus and 21 Prisons

Recommended website:

Reentrycoalition.org
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"As a young lawyer
From the books that I'd read'
I thought justice and law were the same.
But I soon put such juvinile thouhts from my mind
And I studied the rules of the game!" - Unknown

Recommended reading and listening:

San Quentin, by Johnny Cash
The Perpetual Prisoner Machin - How America Profits From Crime, by Joel Dyer
Orange is the New Black (my post)
Mark Levin, Sarah Palin, Chelsea Clinton, and Getting the Government We Deserve (my post)

Prison Inc. The Secret Industry

Prison Inc. The Secret Industry - online-paralegal-degree.org

Excerpt from this article:

"Between 1990 and 2010, the number of privately operated prisons in the US increased 1600%"
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Recommended reading:

Three Felonies a Day: How the Fed Targets the Innocent

Three Felonies A Day - How the Fed Targets the Innocent

Three Felonies A Day - How the Fed Targets the Innocent - threefeloniesaday.com

Excerpt from this article:

"How can the average American commit arguably 3 felonies in the course of a given day? Consider these hypothetical examples along with their real life parallels - in which vague and broad federal laws have made honest citizens into federal felons."
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Recommended reading:

65 Million Need Not Apply - safetyandjustice.org
Should Obama Grant More Pardons? (my post)

How A Model Prison Became America's Scariest

How A Model Prison Became America's Scariest - newser.com

Excerpt from this article:

"BOP [Bureau of Prisons] officials have claimed that the very existence of a place like Lewisburg makes the rest of the federal prison system safer. But even if this is true, purchasing safety for the many by brutalizing a few is a devil’s bargain...represents a blunt, cynical answer to the question of what to do with the federal system’s most troublesome inmates: send them to a place that is so utterly horrible that, by the time they transfer out, they will do anything not to be sent back."

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If I understand correctly this is what this writer is saying: "isolating troublemakers" in prison may make "the rest of the ... prisons safer," but it is "a devil's bargain" ... "unworthy of a civilized nation." I may be wrong, but I think that is what this author is trying to say.


If it is, I totally disagree! I think prisoners should be segregated - not according to race. That's stupid! But according to their conduct while they are in prison! I think the majority of men and women who fill America's prisons just want to quitly do their time, pay their debt to society, and get back to their families and their jobs and their place as good American citizens.

But there is a small minority in prison who can be labled as "trouble makers." These are people who have little or no remorse for thier crime, and little intention of changing their criminal behavior if and when they get out.

To give you an illustration of who these "troublemakers" are, take a look at the recent fad among teens called "The Knockout Game", also known as "Point em out, knock em out." In this growing fad strangers  (sometimes elderly men and young women!) are targeted at random and a person will sneak up on them and try to knock them out with one punch.

If a person continues this type of behavior - after they have been arrested, tried and convicted by the courts, and sent to prison - then I think it is safe to call them a troublemaker. And troublemakers in prison should be allowed to do their time with other troublemakers, and let those inmates who want to better themselves (by following the rules, getting their GED and taking vocational classes and programs) do so without worrying whether they are going to be the target of a prison version of the Knockout Game!

I'm convinced that most people in prison can - and should - be rehabilitated and released back into society. Prisons serve two major functions in society: It either convinces a convict to give up a life of crime so they never go back to prison. Or - for those who won't be convinced - it keeps them off the streets. Ann Coulter has written in one of her books:

"Of course prison works. It keeps people who commit crimes off the streets because they are in prison. Let's run the numbers. The recidivism rate of armed robbers behind bars is, hmmmm, looks like zero percent!"

Recommended reading (my posts):

We Need to be better than the people we prosecute
The Knockout Game

Poor Little Fella: Norway Killer Doesn't Like Prison!

Norway killer slams prison conditions | The Daily Caller:

"Breivik killed 77 people in a car bombing and shooting attacks in Norway’s worst peacetime massacre. He was sentenced to 21 years [in prison]."

'via Blog this'

I Want to Get High!

Imagine for a moment that you were at a public place - say a library - and you saw your 13 year old daughter hanging out with some of her classmates.  You decide to go over and say hi, but as you get closer you overhear the following conversation:

Your daughter: "I want to get high!"

Classmate #1 "Oh, that's right. You've never been high before."

Classmate #2 "I'll get high with you."

I was at the library recently and I overheard that conversation between 3 middle school girls - I'm guessing they were in 7th or 8th grade. I remember when I was that age I was getting high on a regular basis. My drug of choice was gasoline -sniffing or 'huffing' gas was a regular part of my life at that age.

The dangerous thing about drugs is not what it might do to your health. There are many legal things you can do to ruin your health without taking illegal drugs.  You can over eat and get heart disease. You can under eat and starve yourself. You can work yourself to death (literally!). You can speed and drive recklessly in a car or a motorcycle.

The real danger of drugs can be summed up in 9 letters: A.D.D.I.C.T.I.O.N.  Many drugs are addictive and it is the addictive aspect of drugs that make them so dangerous.  The Bible says:

"His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins." Proverbs 5:22

A lot of scientific studies has been done on addictions, and very educated people can go into great detail about the 'biochemical aspects' of this problem. Many of the 12 step programs call their addictions a 'disease.' I don't believe that.

Addictions, are first and foremost, a spiritual problem.  And therefore the solution to addictions must be spiritual as well.

Years ago I was working night shift in the psyche ward at the hospital I had been working at, and I saw a poster on the wall with the poem titled Miss Heroin.  I want to end part one of this series on addictions with this poem:

Miss Heroin

So now, little man (young lady), you've grown tired of grass

LSD, acid cocaine and hash,

and someone pretending to be a true friend,

said, 'I'll introduce you to Miss Heroin.'

Well honey, before you start fooling with me,

just let me inform you of how it will be.

For I will seduce you and make you my slave

I've sent men (and women) much stronger than you to their grave.

You think you could never become a disgrace

and wind up addicted to poppyseed waste?

So you'll start inhaling me one afternoon,

you'll take me into your arms very soon.

And once I've entered deep down in your veins,

the craving will nearly drive you insane.

You'll swindle your mother and just for a buck,

you'll turn into something vile and corrupt.

You'll mug and you'll steal for my narcotic charm

and feel contentment when I'm in your arms.

The day when you realize the monster you've grown

you'll solemnly promise to leave me alone.

If you think you've got the mystical knack

then sweetie just try getting me off your back.

The vomit, the cramps, your gut tied in knots,

The jangling nerves screaming for just one more shot.

The hot chills and cold sweats and withdrawal pains,

can only be saved by my little white grains.

There's no other way, there's no need to look,

for deep down inside you will know you are hooked.

You'll desperately run to your pusher and then,

you'll welcome me back to your arms once again.

And when you've returned, just as I foretold!

I know that you'll give me your body and soul.

You'll give up your morals your conscience your heart,

and you will be mine until 'death do us part!'

Anonymous

Signing My Release Papers - The Final Insult!

If you have followed this blog for any length of time, you know that I served just short of 9 years in prison. If you are new to My Gospel Project, you may wish to look over some of my blog archives on the left of the screen. Just like life on the outside, life in prison is a mixture of positive and negative experiences - at least for me, it was. And some of the things I write about in this blog are taken from a diary I kept for the entire time I was locked up (just short of 9 years).

Today I want to briefly share with you what it was like to sign my release papers.  This is something you do a couple of days before you are official released from prison.  It was a very cold day when I saw my name on the call out to go down to records to sign my release papers.  I think it was about 15 degrees out.

I did not know exactly where to go to sign my release papers, so I asked a guard - excuse me, a corrections officer (they don't like being called gaurds!). He told me to go back to my unit and reread the call out sheet. So I did. The building I needed to go to was about 30 feet away from where the corrections officer was standing. Instead of treating me like a human being, and saying "The builing you're looking for is right over there," he chose to have me walk back to my unit - in 15 degree weather - to reread the call out sheet.

When I got to the place to sign my release papers, I had to wait, along with a couple of other inmates, outside in the cold while they took us into the office - one at a time - to sign our release papers.  I was second in line, and there was one more man behind me.  We had our state issued coats on but it was still extremely cold out.

When my turn finally came to go into the office to sign my release papers, one of the female staff said to her coworker, "Boy, it is really cold in here!" When she said that, I turned and looked at the other inmate standing out in the 15 degree weather and I just shook my head. We were not human beings to these people. We were not even cattle.  We were like the Jews in World War II, and these people were the Gestapo.

Bible reading for today

Today in the news

Slimy Pieces of S**t, Every Last One of Them!

I overheard a corrections officer make this statement about inmates in prison. In all fairness, I don't think he was being serious.  Although he was a fairly young officer at the time, he was very well liked, and even respected, by most of the inmates he dealt with.

Sir Winston Churchill has been quoted as saying "If you want to see the scum of the earth, go to a prison at shift change!" I don't know if he was serious either.

During my 9 years in prison I had almost no contact with the outside world.  For the most part the only people I had any dealings with were inmates, corrections officers, and volunteers who came into the prison. I have not found the inmates I met to be "slimy pieces of s**t." Nor have I felt that the officers were the "Scum of the earth."

I've sat at the same table with a man who murdered his wife, and cut her up into small pieces and put her in the freezer. Although he doesn't talk much about his crime (for obvious reasons), he gave every impression of being just an ordinary guy. Should he be let out of prison? Probably not. And he likely would say the same thing about me and my crime.

One of the benefits of being in prison is you get an opportunity to get a free education.  I was able to take several full length vocational programs before I got out, as well as numerous other classes - all on the taxpayers' dime.

One of the programs I took when I was housed out of state was a program called electrical/mechanical maintenance.  I learned a lot of stuff in that class, but I think the most important thing I learned had nothing to do with motors or electricity.

The teacher had a degree in criminal justice. He said that the government has been studying criminals and recidivism for over 100 years, and of all the things they have tried to use in rehabilitating criminals, there is only one thing they know for sure that works - time.

According to this man, the older a person is, the less likely they are to reoffend.  I think this is true. I have met many many men in prison (and I'm sure the same is true in women's prisons) who have spent years - many of them have spent decades - behind bars. And it's time to start looking at letting them return to society.

I am all for victim's rights, but I'm also for giving people a second chance. The Bible says that "Judgment is without mercy for those who have shown no mercy." -James 2:13



Bible reading for today
Today in the news

Special Topics

Are Prisoners 'Stealing' Jobs from Americans?

American Prison Labor Means Longer Unemployment Lines - Fox News

As someone who has spent almost 9 years in prison I have mixed feelings about taking jobs out of the private sector and giving them to prison inmates. Most of the people at the prisons where I did time made between 24 cents and 42 cents an hour. There were some who made up to $1.20 an hour (that's big money in prison!). And there were a select few who were able to get jobs that paid minimum wage or more (really big money in prison!).

On the one hand, although many prison inmates have fines and restitution to pay off, all of their basic needs are paid for by the state. They get free housing, free clothing, free medical, and free food, and often even free education. On the outside, it is a struggle just to pay for those basic necessities, and there are many homeless, jobless people in society - who have no criminal record at all - who can't afford those basic necessities, and so they just go without (or maybe commit a crime just to get those basic necessities!).

But on the other hand,  I know that the distinction between those on this side of the fence and those on the other side of the fence is far from clear. Take my probation officer, for example.  In a recent post I told how she almost certainly committed a crime, probably a felony, that could have cost her job, her freedom, and maybe placed her in a position where she could be liable for a civil suit. (See my blog, Do What I Say, Not What I Do).

She is fortunate, because I am probably not going to try to press charges (and I doubt that would get me anywhere even if I tried. See my post,  See Something, Say Something, and Is It Really OK to Tell?). But this does reinforce my belief that if every American were held up to the same standard as most convicts (the majority of whom are poor), the distinction between us and them would fade away.

So with this in mind, how should we look at a story like the one on Fox News today: American prison labor means longer unemployment lines? If you've never been to prison, maybe you think prisoners should just sit in their cells 24 hours a day and be fed bread and water. And if you have lived out your life without ever committing a crime, you probably have a right to believe that.

But for the rest of us - whether we have been caught and convicted of a crime,  or like my probation officer, have just been fortunate enough to keep their crime hidden from the prosecuting attorney - we probably should be a little less judgmental about businesses that choose to hire convict laborers. As the saying goes, "There but for the grace of God go I." And Jesus says,

"Judge not, lest ye be judged." - Matthew 7:1

Recommended reading:

65 Million "Need Not Apply": The Case for Reforming Criminal Background Checks for Employment

Get Your Bible Out of My Pants! (Protester's Sign)

Why can't Christians just 'Live and let live?" Why can't we just practice our religion among ourselves and  leave the rest of the world alone?  Here are three reasons why Christians are compelled to speak up, to quote their Bibles, and to warn our neighbors about 'the wrath that is to come:' (Luke 3:7):

1. We know what the future holds for those who reject our Lord Jesus Christ, and we love and care about our neighbors, whether they be living next door to us, across the country, or half way around the world. The Bible says:

"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done in his body, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men;" (II Corinthians 5:10,11)

2. We are going to be held accountable for the knowledge that we possess. In a very real sense, we are our brothers (and our sister's!) keeper (whether they want to be 'kept' or not.)  The Bible says:

"When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand."

3. I would like to think that most Christians would be motivated by one or both of the things mentioned above.  but there are some more practical reasons why Christians need to speak out against th evils they see around them. Now I'm thinking especially of American Christians

Here are some issues in the news that directly effect Christians:

Declining to Photograph a Same-Sex Ceremony: Is It Legal to Refuse a Gay Client? 

Another Victory for the ACLU and its War on Christianity

The ACLU is against Christianity, Not a Prayer

The ACLU: Enemy of America and of Christianity

Will Your Church be Subject to a Conscience Tax?

IRS Warns Pastors to Keep Silent During Elections

NJ Nurses Forced to Perform Abortions:  Judge Issues Temporary Exemption Order

Proposed Law would Force Churches to Host Gay Weddings

Ruling Seen as Threat to Many Home Schooling Families

Possible Life in Prison for Spanking

Biology Teacher Fired for Teaching Intelligent Design

Lesbians to Sue Church for Discrimination

Congress to Revive Hate Crime Bill to Censure Christians

Christians have no Right to Wear Cross at Work, Government say

California Moves to Pass first State Ban of Gay Conversion Therapy

Military Proselytizing by the Gideons - and how we Stopped it

Telling Children Hell Exists is Child Abuse

Christian Speech Targeted as 'Hate'

Obama's Holy War against the Church will not End Well

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Recommended reading:

TV is OK for a Captive Audience; the Bible Isn't!