The Poor serve jail time longer than the law requires or plead guilty to crimes they didn't commit

to: corndog67 from: annelor
people do not "choose"... sometimes people are "forced" into a life that is not of "their" choice. It is unfortunate. People "do" have choices. People "CAN" make the choices that transform their lives. It's sad though when someone has made all the "RIGHT" choices, and then they get caught in a "CATCH 22" that is when you are in the "right place" but at the "wrong time". " **it happens" Unfortunately. but it does; and sometimes even the best of the best get caught in the crossfire. NOT GOOD..
Be careful with the words you "choose". "always". This world is not an easy place to be. It is "HARSH, and TOUGH". BUT, It CAN be Beautiful and Withstand able".in the sense of "cheerfulness, and love". Which is something we all strive for. We all want. But so hard to achieve, because we are all not the same. and the majority of people have something to be angry about, which rubs off on to other people. SAD. but, true.
We all need to "Take time and TRY". It starts with the one that is the most annoying to YOU. If you can "TRY" in some way or another, someone else has the ability to try and maybe around the world, wouldn't that be something!! It may even take a while, but once it's achieved, you can move on to conquer more. There is a saying, "kill 'em with kindness". Well, it does really work, and wouldn' t; this world be a nicer place to BE!!!
We all want peace. We can achieve it, but it starts with you., me, and you and me and... (you got the idea)
Have a nice day :)
It's easy to be mean, but it hard to be nice, and with a little bit of nice, this could be a better world t live in.
So for "catch 22's" it happens and it happens to some of the best, but if we all try, we all could be better. It's a one on one scenario. Baby steps. Starting over, trying harder, loving our brothers and sisters. After all we are all connected, in one way or another.

Generally, people do not "submit to a life of poverty and starvation". They make their choices as to what to do with their life. You can choose to drink yourself stupid everyday and work the social services section. You can sit around do what you can to secure some drugs everyday (my choice for many years), You can choose to go to work every day.

Of course, there is a bit of mental illness out there. But most is personal choice as to what to do with your life.

Well, this is sad of course. Plain and obvious the fact that he was unable to pay these fines. Living in a tent, half blind and an injured arm!
Here in the United States of America, we are getting "out of control" with the legal issues and the rights of Americans. Seems as if the "men in blue" can "do" and "get away" with whatever "they" want to "DO". Not fair. Too many things are happening out there that I disagree with. The "seniors" in American, Racial issues, Pet issues, and the list is growing larger every day.
The one good thing about this poor man going to jail, unfortunately to say, is the fact that he was privy to hot food, a bed with a pillow, shower facilities, and an opportunity to "dry" out, if needed and if he had any addiction problems, you know what I mean.. . So, yes it was not a justified action on the police officers side, and the fact that taxpayers cover those costs when a civilian gets carted off to jail, but hopefully in this case, it was helpful in some way to allow this poor man to get a chance at re-directing his life in a positive manner. Living in tent and cleaning up in public bathrooms is not a way a of life, especially for an individual living in the USA. Not here, Not the USA, should "our" people have to submit to a life of "poverty and starvation", or "brutality", from our officers, which are here to "protect and serve" the citizens of our country.

VoyagerFilms, first step toward the change it to overcome ignorance. In my opinion this may be a challenge in our society.

MotherForTruth, us talking about it and exposing it right here, right now.

Look at those who just got busted in New Jersey. None of us are perfect, we all make mistakes. This life is a bit of an experiment and a learning process. It's one thing to make mistakes, and another to be or have criminal intent. To knowingly violate the law, morals, to compromise ones own integrity.

Laws are not written for themselves, for their own benefit. They are a tool to maintain a civil society. What happens when laws are abused, used by people with questionable moral character? We get what we got now.

Laws, the judicial system, trials, courts all that becomes a tool abused for personal gain, agenda and profit - no different than a criminal. Look at Rocky Delgadillo, former LA City Attorney. He went after Paris Hilton and other high profile people not because they were terrible criminals, but because he sought the attention it would bring him.

Did Rocky Delgadillo rape Paris Hilton? In a way, yes. Did he abuse his authority and expose his morale-less character? Yes. Did he do it to everyone? Yes.

Sooner or later, we must ask ourselves what sort of world do we want to live in, rather than playing along with it and ignoring the crimes of public officials. That they are public officials does not make it less of a crime, but more of a crime. They must be held to a higher standard.

Why US have more prisoners then any nation in the world? Since the majority of prisoners are men I will list a few examples injustice and corruption affecting men.
Our system incarcerates men who argue paying child support for children they do not have. And have you seen domestic violence laws lately which openly encourage and promote false accusation in order to gain legal immigrant status and even force the newly married American husband to move out his own house?

Take a look at the depth of the corruption by prosecution and judges. There are numerous cases of criminal misconduct, racketeering, fabrication of evidence, manipulation of court documents, doctoring recording of court proceedings, suppression and disappearance of evidence proving innocence, coercing witnesses and victims utilizing questionable techniques. It only takes someone’s accusation and a whole system with government resources is against often innocent person. Some people do not wish to take their rosy glasses off and see the reality. Some naïve people choose to believe that prosecution would never build a case against innocent person. But the truth is such practices are extremely common. Why? It may be to build a career, or follow a personal ideology instead of the rule of law, or get financial benefits and federal funding that will support the department just to name a few.

How long will these unjust laws and corrupt practices be allowed to continue on? How many of our fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters must fall victims to this corrupt industry before we demand real changes? What will it take?

Said it before and I will say it again....You can count on me Kenny. I'm just waiting for the shit to hit the fan.
LOCKED AND LOADED MAN.....LETS GET ON WITH THIS

Thank you MotherForTruth, I know you see truth wherever it surfaces. Can I count on your assistance when we take our government back.

before you guys take out your torches ..realize reality here..MOST OF THESE HOMELESS FUCKERS prefer to get jailed.....jail time is a temp situation..

free food free shower free shelter free medicine..they DO THAT ALL THE TIME..

It not only effects our society it makes a mockery of it. When a class of people are so blatantly treated different than any other class that in itself makes the system a facade.

I agree, and it really affects our society in a terrible way.

I've gotta agree with that. You can buy your way out of just about anything, except maybe stealing $50bil. And a real lawyer, not just a public defender assigned to your case, will get you less time, and maybe no time at all. The judges go golfing with the lawyers, better to grease up the lawyers with some coin.

We cannot generalize because even some people that are part of the system are good and work their part to make the system rolling. However it is true. Some fundamentals in which the Judicial system is built and run are based in just one thing, Money! The poor do not have a chance! What we have might work for some individuals that brakes the Law but it doesn't work if someone or a Government body is violating your rights. I want to hear more because our Judicial system is in need of a Public brush up. It is effective in some ways but corruptive; (adjective); in many ways. It is time to open up the box and put the questions on the table for the Public to see. Bring it on!

How about the formerly poor, that worked hard and made millionaires out of themselves? I know a couple of self made millionaires, that did it through hard work and perseverance, not trying to burn the bus company out of $1.50.

As for ole Hubert, well, he had fines from previous crimes. He didn't pay them. He went to jail. I would assume that I would go to jail, same as him. But I would have paid the fines. What is the court supposed to do, just let him slide on the fines? If they didn't do anything about them, nobody would pay the fines.

As I've mentioned before, I've been to jail a couple of times before I smartened up. And the great majority of people that are in the criminal justice system are guilty. I would assume that there might be a very small percentage, maybe 1% or less, that aren't guilty. I know that I was guilty. And most of the people that you meet in jail are some criminal minded fuck ups. Some are too stupid to hold jobs and resort to crime to get by. Others are too lazy and want to make the easy money. Still others think they can outsmart "the system" and pull some scams.

If you live within the norms of society, and some are trying to make homelessness a norm, and it's not, you will generally not have any problems. If you decide for yourself, that you don't want to work, don't want to pay your bills (or, fines, in this case), live outside of societal rules, chances are, you will end up in the criminal justice system. I realize it's not a perfect system, but it's what we've got to work with, no choice in the matter.

It has become part of a warped system.

Yes, it's sad this fact, but as long as the poor let themsevles be taken as fools nothing will change. I believe the poor have more heart than those who are millionaires and this I can back up 200 percent!

WOW, this story speaks to my heart. I know firsthand how true this is.

Typical!

Not only are they charging fines, a lot of these places are work centers that contract inmate labor cheap and take profits from other businesses by doing so. Unfair to all the public.

No Shit!

T he prison system is just as corrupt as the police etc. Keep the beds full and get the federal dollars, no empty cells means a full pay check empty cells equal lesser paycheck bust them pot smokers we need the money.(LOL) The system is a joke!

Its just our money.....no big deal. Corrupt systems working flawlessly.

The public defender system has become so underfunded it is effectively useless. One day someone is going to win a meranda lawsuit based on it and all hell is going to break loose.

Like mentioned above by masterzip, it's one of the only ways to get free healthcare in this country, not to mention food and shelter.

But those are probably rare cases.

But this still means: It's a crime to be poor in the richest country on Earth.

I watched a homeless young man sit in county jail for two or three days - at great expense to tax payers I will add, for not paying a $1.25 bus fare.

WHAT A JOKE! Jail time is hugely expensive. Court time is hugely expensive. The expense to incarcerate this young man was in the thousands, the bus fare inconsequential.

Stupid? YES.

I agree, and it really affects our society detrimentally to a much greater degree than people realize.

We will never be a truly great country with such a corrupted, broken system. It needs to be changed. It may be every bit as much necessary as getting off fossil fuel, stopping global warming or any other substantial issue.

VoyagerFilms, It is much bigger problem then many can imagine. Please watch these videos, the facts are an eye opener.

http://current.com/items/90513334_criminal-misconduct-racketeering-child-abuse-b...
http://current.com/items/90513397_criminal-misconduct-racketeering-child-abuse-b...

Our system is corrupt. That is not to say all who are involved in it are corrupt, but there is a huge responsibility on those in the judicial system to conduct / operate the system with absolute integrity looking out for the rights and justice for all involved.

The problem starts at the the bottom, with those at the point of first contact, police and various other governmental agencies.

A trial is not a process in which the search for truth is conducted. Based on my very own first hand experience, a trial is a battle of used car salesmen angling for the upper hand - truth, facts, reality be damned. It's may the best (cheater) man win.

Too often, those who lack a healthy moral compass seek and cultivate alliances with others like themselves. Many of these people end up in positions of power and therefore unduly and as an abuse of power influence the application of justice. Again, the truth be damned. Judges and prosecutors carry a much greater burden of upholding the law, our Constitution and the rights of everyone.

It's not just the poor who suffer. I had a relatively new and successful business with an excellent reputation. The Bureau of Auto Repair or BAR here in California was complicit in and committed felony violations of the law, the Los Angeles City Attorneys office under and with complicity from Rocky Delgadillo sought to conceal evidence of said criminal violations of the public employees involved - and continued to seek my prosecution as a cover up.

I wasn't poor and had healthy cash flow from my business, until this occurred. The BAR employees took it upon themselves to scare customers out of my business. On at least on occasion a BAR employee went to my customers house to warn that customer he / they were going to prosecute me.

The idea is that by destroying my reputation and income, I would not be able to defend myself and expose their corruption. It didn't work until I was ultimately set up in a car crash costing me thousands of dollars and threatened with murder.

Los Angeles City Attorney 's office under Rocky Delgadillo nor prosecuting deputy City Attorney Patrick Shibuya cared despite strong evidence the case for which I was being prosecuted and the threat on my life were connected. The situation was conveniently ignored. It was then I had to rely on a public defender. The public defender had been a lawyer for all of about 10 months when she took my case. On the other side, Rocky Delgadillo gave a statement to the Daily News, LA's second largest newspaper that he was PERSONALLY INVOLVED in prosecuting me.

This makes Rocky Delgadillo personally complicit in criminal actions and misconduct in my case - in my opinion.

masterzip, There are cases where some needing medical or mental health attention instead has been incarcerated but the major issue is financial ability to secure proper defense. The quality of defense is proportional to the size of your wallet. To understand the full extent of our judicial corruption one needs to live thru the destruction of often innocent lives.

Where is the modern day Dickens? The 21st century debtors prison is filled with the poor and people who smoke pot. Those are the people who scare me the most. Where are the lepers?

pinkerbelle, you are correct it not a surprise but what are we doing to change it? Unchanged judicial system will effect each and everyone sooner or later.

the distribution of wealth and power in the united states is that of a developing country! i can't believe this is a surprise to anyone, especially americans.

there is a good reason that poor people plead guilty to crimes they did not commit. There have been more than one studies on this. The main reason is....wait for it....."Socialized health care".......

There have been many people who have come forward that they could not afford medical care so they commit a crime on purpose to get the attention they need.

I recently had to pay for a public defender ($800). Which was to represent me in a hearing about a charge I didn't commit. (There were no witnesses to the alleged crime, just one person making unbacked accusations). Now I'm in a one year deferral program, what happened to innocent until proven guilty?

I plead to all Americans .... study , study , study .... you have to know your rights .... know the constitution of the US ... it don't take much , just pick up the compy or go to the library , do something before it happens to you .... law enforcement get away with way too much, and it makes those of us that was at the wrong place at the wrong time suffer (and our families).....

We have a seriously corrupt judicial industry. Criminal Misconduct, Racketeering, Private and Profitable Prisons.... The easy target - poor. Even when you have savings to hire a good attorney you quickly find yourself poor and no longer represented as the corrupt system is perfected to delay, cancel, utilize every illegal trick to make you poor and send you to prison. The US has LARGEST number of prisoners in the WORLD and most are for non violent crimes, many are innocent.

cops are good at getting confessions, it's their job. whether you did it or not.

once they have confessions it's pretty hard for an overworked defense attorney to save them

sad.