Letters from North America/ by Peary Perry
I just realized that it has been ten years since I stopped
writing for the newspapers. If you recall I had a weekly column that was
published in 100 weekly newspapers throughout the country. I did this week
after week for over 25 years.
Ten years ago, I lost my humor and quit. I couldn’t find
things to write about.
Now, I’m back.
So, here we go again.
This morning I read that one of the ladies involved in the
California college cheating scandal was sentenced to a prison term of 14 days.
She is one of many caught up in a large scale fraud investigation. One of the
defenses being used is …”they didn’t actually hurt anyone.”
At the other end of the spectrum was a case involving a
homeless mother who claimed her son actually lived in a school district where
he could get a better education…the mother was convicted and sentenced to five
years. Well, I suggest that this mother didn’t ‘actually hurt anyone’ either.
She was trying to help her son, the same as those involved
in the California mess.
So if you look at the details on Snopes or other fact
checking websites, you will see that they justify the differences by saying…two
different courts…different judges…different states and jurisdictions.
While all of that is indeed true, doesn’t common sense work
into these situations at some point?
The California defendants are mostly wealthy and white, the
homeless lady is poor and black.
I don’t know about you, but this kind of stuff gets my blood
pressure up because of the inequity of how similar in crime but different in
outcomes based on the obvious, rich folks can afford to hire expensive attorneys
and poor folks have to take whatever they can get.
The jails and prisons in this country are full of people who
were encouraged to cop a plea so they could get out of jail or a prison
sentence and then are forced to live with a felony conviction for the remainder
of their lives. They find it hard to get an apartment, a job and all of the
other necessary things in our society because they received bad advice or took
the only option they thought they had.
The police and the prosecutors want pleas, not trials since
it is less expensive and saves time and government resources. They are not
trying to fix the problem, they are involved in the problem.
It’s kind of like a huge whirlpool that spins so rapidly no
one (cops, courts and defendants) can escape.
It is small wonder that many minorities in this country see
unequal treatment and become resentful and mad over the current status quo.
I’m an old white guy, who used to be a cop years ago and
this makes me mad as well.
For those who have never been in “The Life’ …their world is
a bewildering place to visit, much less live in. The criminal justice system in
this country is a huge industry. Many communities exist on prison employment
and the support necessary for their existence.
Do not get me wrong, I am not making a case for freeing
everyone from prison.
No, indeed there are some really bad people in these places
who should be in there for the remainder of their lives.
What I am saying is, how do we correct the injustice of the
example I cited earlier about the mothers trying to get their children a better
education?
According to the Vera Institute, it costs anywhere from
$31,000 to $60,000 a year to feed and house a prisoner. Would not we be better
served if we spent tax dollars on education and housing than locking someone up
for non-violent offenses?
If the schools won’t see that our citizens get an education,
then when they get into trouble (as they most likely will) then why not take
the opportunity to correct them and help them rather than warehousing them for
years with no hope of improving their lifestyles when they are released?
Some of this stuff just seems like common sense to me, but it
is time we start changing the situation in some way or another.
That’s my take on it this week.
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