Aloha to thee

p122654

Active Member
@@@

Lover-Lover,

Aloha to thee. I could feel something like this happening to us if we went to trial with zero defense allowed. It was just going to be really bad and zero we could do about it. I zero wanted us to be the next victims of a really bad trial with terrible consequences. When the appeal offer was made it was time to wake-up and take it.

As I've told you my former friend in here from India refused his 5 year plea deal and went to trial - he lost and got 32 years in maximum security, "Super-Max" one of the worst federal prisons in the country as it's solitary confinement all the way. God bless that good-hearted man and all others who deserve so much better in this life.

@@@
-- Share on 12/5/2013

Turned Down 3 Years in Prison and Ended Up With 15 to Life

December 5, 2013 - By Anthony Papa
Today a new report by Human Rights Watch titled "An Offer You Can t Refuse" revealed that only three percent of U.S. drug defendants in federal cases chose to go to trial instead of pleading guilty in 2012. The report explains that the reason only three percent go to trial is because prosecutors warn defendants that if they refuse the plea and go to trial, they will be charged with a more series crime and end up with a much longer sentence.

Prosecutors live and die for convictions and they use mandatory minimum sentencing as a prosecutorial tool to secure convictions and get people to plead guilty without getting their right to a fair trial.

People s fear of angering prosecutors by going to trial is real. The reports shows that defendants who chose to exercise their constitutional rights to go to trial routinely face sentences three times greater than the original plea deals. This is an astounding revelation.

I know the pressure to take a deal and the disastrous consequences of taking my case to trial. In 1985 I refused a plea deal of three years and end up being sentenced to 15 years to life under the mandatory provisions of New York s Rockefeller Drug Laws.
hree years to life was the biggest mistake of my life.. Because I refused the offer I was sentenced to more than five times the amount of time I was offered in the plea bargain. During my years of imprisonment I tried to commit suicide, I was stuck with a knife, and I was beat down with a pipe.

But nothing hurt me more than my separation from my daughter, Stephanie. Her child-like innocence gave me the will to live when I wanted to die..

Although I tried to keep a relationship with her, she suffered greatly from my prison sentence. No child should have experienced the horrible conditions she had to go through, such as body searches, long waiting lines and abusive correction officers.

Little by little, her beautiful child-like demeanor disappeared, and was replaced with a sadness and depression generally seen in a much older person. By the time she was 12, she had become psychologically damaged,

From my relationship with my daughter I learned that prison did not end at the wall that separated me from society. It went far beyond it, reaching loved ones and friends of those incarcerated. When I refused the plea offer my life changed forever.

I commend Human Rights Watch for exposing how prosecutors get drug defendants to accept plea bargains by charging them with extraordinary long sentences under mandatory minimums. It is time to end harsh mandatory minimums that both destroy lives and may a mockery of our "justice" system..

Anthony Papa is the media relations manager for the Drug Policy Alliance and author of 15 to Life: How I Painted my Way to Freedom.

Aloha. Thanks (I think) for this bad news. I had heard of it last year and it is wrong, wrong, wrong to the core.
what's going-on. high-tech slavery right now. Where are any signs in the opposite direction? That we're headed to maximum freedom? The brightest spot on the freedom horizon to me is Colorado voting-in legal Cannabis. Other than that, there are very few politicians who even talk of more freedom or liberty.

"Where there is no vision the people perish."

What's y/our vision? For one thing ...

Cannabis as our "botanical savior"

to help save us from spiritual lonliness and mental slavery with sacred sacraments; holy smoke, holy anointing oil
to help save us from hunger and malnutrition with hempseed foods and raw leaf juice
to help save us from pain and disease with medical marijuana in many forms
to help save us from toxic pharmaceuticals with safe and natural Cannabis home remedies
to help save us from poverty with Ganja-nomics, organic Cannabis gardens at home
to help save us from war with anandamide, the bliss stuff in Cannabis especially good for men
to help save us from eco-extinction with organic hemp crops vs. GMO's and synthetics

and so much more!

Now THAT'S a real-life 'savior' in my opinion.

All the best to you, and to everyone,

Roger

@@@
-----Fahs, Barbara on 12/3/2013 10:51 AM


What?!? Private prisons suing states for millions if they don t stay full
Sep. 26, 2013 8:44 AM EST, Rollingout.com
by Terry Shropshire

Low crime rates bad for business for white-owned private prisons; they demand states keep them full

The prison-industrial complex is so out of control that private prisons have the sheer audacity to order states to keep beds full or face their wrath with stiff financial penalties, according to reports. Private prisons in some states have language in their contracts that state if they fall below a certain percentage of capacity that the states must pay the private prisons millions of dollars, lest they face a lawsuit for millions more.

And guess what? The private prisons, which are holding cash-starved states hostage, are getting away with it, says advocacy group, In the Public Interest.

In the Public Interest has reviewed more than 60 contracts between private prison companies and state and local governments across the country, and found language mentioning "quotas" for prisoners in nearly two-thirds of those contracts reviewed. Those quotas can range from a mandatory occupancy of, for example, 70 percent occupancy in California to up to 100 percent in some prisons in Arizona.

It is very interesting and telling that so few major national news organization are willing to report on the monstrous, ravenous and criminal system that is devouring hundreds of thousands of black and brown boys. Even those who do not subscribe to conspiracy theories have looked askance at this shocking report.

Welcome to the greatest manifestation of modern-day slavery, ladies and gentlemen.

One of those private prisons, The Corrections Corporation of America, made an offer last year to the governors of 48 states to operate their prisons on 20-year contracts, according to In the Public Interest.

What makes these deals so odious and unscrupulous? Take a look:

1) The offer included a demand that those prisons remain 90 percent full for the duration of the operating agreement. You know what that means: if there are not enough prisoners then there will be an unspoken push for police to arrest more people and to have the courts send more to prison for petty, frivolous and nonviolent crimes. There will also be a "nudge" for judges to hand down longer or maximum sentences to satisfy this "quota."

2) Private prison companies have also backed measures such as "three-strike" laws to maintain high prison occupancy.

3) When the crime rate drops so low that the occupancy requirements can t be met, taxpayers are left footing the bill for unused facilities.

The report found that 41 of 62 contracts reviewed contained occupancy requirements, with the highest occupancy rates found in Arizona, Oklahoma and Virginia.

In Colorado, Democratic Gov. John Hinklooper agreed to close down five state-run prisons and instead send inmates to CCA s three corrections facilities. That cost taxpayers at least $2 million to maintain the unused facilities.

It is getting more difficult to rationalize the societal cost of keeping prisons full just to satisfy private investors who treat prisoners as commodity and cattle .



Aloha.
I'm good. Still at F.D.C., facing a 5 year 'mandatory minimum' sentence on February 10th, but with hope for the U.S. Senate to pass Senate Bill 1410 next week which could reduce it to 2 years. Have you heard of the Smarter Sentencing Act? 10's would go to 5 and 5's would go to 2 for those who qualify. Since I've already been in here 41 months it's possible I'm outta here on my sentencing date. We'll see. I've been disappointed by the courts before, but hope springs eternal for myself and for everyone else, too.

Roger Christie
 
@@@

Lover-Lover,

Aloha to thee. I could feel something like this happening to us if we went to trial with zero defense allowed. It was just going to be really bad and zero we could do about it. I zero wanted us to be the next victims of a really bad trial with terrible consequences. When the appeal offer was made it was time to wake-up and take it.

As I've told you my former friend in here from India refused his 5 year plea deal and went to trial - he lost and got 32 years in maximum security, "Super-Max" one of the worst federal prisons in the country as it's solitary confinement all the way. God bless that good-hearted man and all others who deserve so much better in this life.

@@@
-- Share on 12/5/2013

Turned Down 3 Years in Prison and Ended Up With 15 to Life

December 5, 2013 - By Anthony Papa
Today a new report by Human Rights Watch titled "An Offer You Can t Refuse" revealed that only three percent of U.S. drug defendants in federal cases chose to go to trial instead of pleading guilty in 2012. The report explains that the reason only three percent go to trial is because prosecutors warn defendants that if they refuse the plea and go to trial, they will be charged with a more series crime and end up with a much longer sentence.

Prosecutors live and die for convictions and they use mandatory minimum sentencing as a prosecutorial tool to secure convictions and get people to plead guilty without getting their right to a fair trial.

People s fear of angering prosecutors by going to trial is real. The reports shows that defendants who chose to exercise their constitutional rights to go to trial routinely face sentences three times greater than the original plea deals. This is an astounding revelation.

I know the pressure to take a deal and the disastrous consequences of taking my case to trial. In 1985 I refused a plea deal of three years and end up being sentenced to 15 years to life under the mandatory provisions of New York s Rockefeller Drug Laws.
hree years to life was the biggest mistake of my life.. Because I refused the offer I was sentenced to more than five times the amount of time I was offered in the plea bargain. During my years of imprisonment I tried to commit suicide, I was stuck with a knife, and I was beat down with a pipe.

But nothing hurt me more than my separation from my daughter, Stephanie. Her child-like innocence gave me the will to live when I wanted to die..

Although I tried to keep a relationship with her, she suffered greatly from my prison sentence. No child should have experienced the horrible conditions she had to go through, such as body searches, long waiting lines and abusive correction officers.

Little by little, her beautiful child-like demeanor disappeared, and was replaced with a sadness and depression generally seen in a much older person. By the time she was 12, she had become psychologically damaged,

From my relationship with my daughter I learned that prison did not end at the wall that separated me from society. It went far beyond it, reaching loved ones and friends of those incarcerated. When I refused the plea offer my life changed forever.

I commend Human Rights Watch for exposing how prosecutors get drug defendants to accept plea bargains by charging them with extraordinary long sentences under mandatory minimums. It is time to end harsh mandatory minimums that both destroy lives and may a mockery of our "justice" system..

Anthony Papa is the media relations manager for the Drug Policy Alliance and author of 15 to Life: How I Painted my Way to Freedom.

Aloha. Thanks (I think) for this bad news. I had heard of it last year and it is wrong, wrong, wrong to the core.
what's going-on. high-tech slavery right now. Where are any signs in the opposite direction? That we're headed to maximum freedom? The brightest spot on the freedom horizon to me is Colorado voting-in legal Cannabis. Other than that, there are very few politicians who even talk of more freedom or liberty.

"Where there is no vision the people perish."

What's y/our vision? For one thing ...

Cannabis as our "botanical savior"

to help save us from spiritual lonliness and mental slavery with sacred sacraments; holy smoke, holy anointing oil
to help save us from hunger and malnutrition with hempseed foods and raw leaf juice
to help save us from pain and disease with medical marijuana in many forms
to help save us from toxic pharmaceuticals with safe and natural Cannabis home remedies
to help save us from poverty with Ganja-nomics, organic Cannabis gardens at home
to help save us from war with anandamide, the bliss stuff in Cannabis especially good for men
to help save us from eco-extinction with organic hemp crops vs. GMO's and synthetics

and so much more!

Now THAT'S a real-life 'savior' in my opinion.

All the best to you, and to everyone,

Roger

@@@
-----Fahs, Barbara on 12/3/2013 10:51 AM


What?!? Private prisons suing states for millions if they don t stay full
Sep. 26, 2013 8:44 AM EST, Rollingout.com
by Terry Shropshire

Low crime rates bad for business for white-owned private prisons; they demand states keep them full

The prison-industrial complex is so out of control that private prisons have the sheer audacity to order states to keep beds full or face their wrath with stiff financial penalties, according to reports. Private prisons in some states have language in their contracts that state if they fall below a certain percentage of capacity that the states must pay the private prisons millions of dollars, lest they face a lawsuit for millions more.

And guess what? The private prisons, which are holding cash-starved states hostage, are getting away with it, says advocacy group, In the Public Interest.

In the Public Interest has reviewed more than 60 contracts between private prison companies and state and local governments across the country, and found language mentioning "quotas" for prisoners in nearly two-thirds of those contracts reviewed. Those quotas can range from a mandatory occupancy of, for example, 70 percent occupancy in California to up to 100 percent in some prisons in Arizona.

It is very interesting and telling that so few major national news organization are willing to report on the monstrous, ravenous and criminal system that is devouring hundreds of thousands of black and brown boys. Even those who do not subscribe to conspiracy theories have looked askance at this shocking report.

Welcome to the greatest manifestation of modern-day slavery, ladies and gentlemen.

One of those private prisons, The Corrections Corporation of America, made an offer last year to the governors of 48 states to operate their prisons on 20-year contracts, according to In the Public Interest.

What makes these deals so odious and unscrupulous? Take a look:

1) The offer included a demand that those prisons remain 90 percent full for the duration of the operating agreement. You know what that means: if there are not enough prisoners then there will be an unspoken push for police to arrest more people and to have the courts send more to prison for petty, frivolous and nonviolent crimes. There will also be a "nudge" for judges to hand down longer or maximum sentences to satisfy this "quota."

2) Private prison companies have also backed measures such as "three-strike" laws to maintain high prison occupancy.

3) When the crime rate drops so low that the occupancy requirements can t be met, taxpayers are left footing the bill for unused facilities.

The report found that 41 of 62 contracts reviewed contained occupancy requirements, with the highest occupancy rates found in Arizona, Oklahoma and Virginia.

In Colorado, Democratic Gov. John Hinklooper agreed to close down five state-run prisons and instead send inmates to CCA s three corrections facilities. That cost taxpayers at least $2 million to maintain the unused facilities.

It is getting more difficult to rationalize the societal cost of keeping prisons full just to satisfy private investors who treat prisoners as commodity and cattle .



Aloha.
I'm good. Still at F.D.C., facing a 5 year 'mandatory minimum' sentence on February 10th, but with hope for the U.S. Senate to pass Senate Bill 1410 next week which could reduce it to 2 years. Have you heard of the Smarter Sentencing Act? 10's would go to 5 and 5's would go to 2 for those who qualify. Since I've already been in here 41 months it's possible I'm outta here on my sentencing date. We'll see. I've been disappointed by the courts before, but hope springs eternal for myself and for everyone else, too.

Roger Christie
The way of man not God.
 
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