- By Richard N. Baldwin T.
/HispanicVista.com
- And Justice For Some
- Recently, the
United States gained a new world record: Having the largest prison
population of any country in the world.
It is also of note that far more than half of the total prison
population in the US is for drug related offenses. And in the US, unlike
México, the drug related prisoners are mostly from the lower end drug
offenses (local suppliers and possession of small amounts of drugs). In
México, they tend to go more for the high-end drug chiefs.
It is also a fact that in many areas in the US they don't know where
to put all of those criminals. Early release programs are springing up
everywhere. And exacerbating the situation is the growing "three strikes
and you are out" laws.
Let's look at one case that I know of: The subject is a bright young
man from the Midwest, who also has a propensity for doing stupid silly
things. He got involved in a check-cashing scam and did some time as a
guest of the state. Later, now working at a decent job, he was at a party
where marijuana was used. Unfortunately they were making too much noise,
the police were called and pot was found. Hit number two. After this,
about 6 months later, he was caught at another party, too much noise, pot
was in use, and this made hit number 3. In that state, this was the third
strike and you get 25 years. In this case, after over a year of appeals,
the sentence was reduced to 7 years, he took a plea and will be out in
time to enter middle age.
I am not an advocate of the 1960s free drug society, but I wonder how
well justice has been served in thousands of cases like this. Didn't we
learn anything from the Great Prohibition Experiment? All we ended up
doing in that case was to create the business to form a strong Mafia.
And as long as we are talking about making more criminals, here is
another case worth mentioning. In this case, we have a young man, making a
good honest living and supporting a wife and child. But he has a problem.
While a baby in arms, he was carried by his parents from México into the
US. As time passed, his parents, originally "illegals", managed to not
only become legal, but US citizens under the laws at that time. However,
everybody forgot about the baby in arms, and he never went through the
legalization process. I should also point out that this man can barely
speak Spanish, cannot read Spanish, and is as "American" as any
born-in-the-US American is. And he was also raised to have respect for the
law.
Later, now married, he tried to straighten up his status and
initiated the legalization process. And that is where his problem started.
They discovered that as a teenager, he was riding in a car where there was
some open alcohol and when the car was pulled over for a traffic offense,
it was found. The other teens, including the driver, had their parents
hire legal help and were able to get them off on reduced minor charges.
But the subject man here was not raised that way. His position was that he
had done something wrong and wanted to take his punishment. He simply
plead guilty and served 4 months as a guest of the state.
And when the immigration people checked his records, they found this
"conviction" and declared him to be an "undesirable".
He went through years of appeals, but to no avail. Finally, he was
given notice of deportation and a date about one week away. ICE came three
days later to his home, and while he was still trying to pack, put him on
a one way plane trip to central México.
In Mexico, he simply turned around and went back to the border by
bus. He then walked across the bridge, was waved right through and
rejoined his family. I don't know where he is now, but he is with his
family, probably living under a different name, and still supporting them.
First of all, so much for "border security". And what good end did
this travesty accomplish? This was what the "DREAM" act was supposed to
address, shot down by right wing "law and order" zealots.
Why not try and keep the real criminals in jail for a change? You
might end up with more room in the prisons.
By the way, México has a prison-overcrowding problem too. Now that
the "guilty until proven innocent" law is being changed, one southern
state is reviewing cases of inmates. Out of 300 cases reviewed, over 100
were found to have no merit. And they were released.
_____________________________________
Richard N. Baldwin T., a HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com)
contributing columnist, lives in
Tlalnepantla, Edo de México. E-mail at:
R1041643422@aol.com
By
Richard N. Baldwin T. /HispanicVista.com