Wednesday, April 29, 2020 -
Yesterday, I had no less than four people tell me specifically that when I am out of prison I need to use any influence I may have to call for the reversal of the injustice of the system as it exists now. The American system of justice is no longer just, and the Constitution no longer applies.
Innocence and guilt are now irrelevant when it comes to vetting prison sentences. And an innocent person has little chance of being vindicated or winning at trial. Prosecutors, working for the U.S. Justice Department will do anything to get a conviction whether they realize someone is innocent or guilty. That’s because only convictions serve to enhance their careers.
Their tactics involve forcing even innocent people to admit they are guilty. Either the accused must admit guilt to receive the minimum mandatory sentence, or he must go to trial and face the possibility of an extraordinarily unjust sentence for the crime he is being accused of. This leaves innocent people with no choice but to plead guilty.
And if they are going to go ahead with a trial, the government holds sway over the courts to make certain the jury hands down a guilty verdict, making a fair trial very unlikely. Still, way fewer than 90 percent of cases go to trial because the accused is forced to “plead out” and often cooperate in implicating others or face decades in prison. The bottom line is that there is no longer justice in our judicial system.
What’s more, sentences are still extraordinarily harsh and only serve to harden the criminals, as do our prison systems where inmates are treated with no worth or respect, little more than animals. They call this a “correctional institution,” but that name is a laughable joke. Or, rather, a blatant lie used for public relations purposes. There is no rehabilitation and no encouragement. Simply, nothing is done for reform purposes other than a few basic opportunities to learn the book facts about certain trades such as HVAC or welding. Most classes are provided as mere exercises in futility where answers to quizzes and tests are given ahead of time attendance can be rigged so that classes are rarely, if ever, attended, and all are taught by other inmates. GEDs are handed out if you can manage to pass the test, which nets a significant cash bonus to the prison facility. Once you are incarcerated the Bureau of Prison makes its own rules, ignoring acts of Congress signed by the President, such as the prison reform bill called The First Step Act. Each prisoner is worth approximately $40,000 annually to the local prison facility courtesy of you, the taxpayer. With the bulk of that expense being used for payroll, paying out wonderful salaries, and padding the local economies. Prisoners handle all maintenance, construction, food preparation, landscaping, etc. And it is the prisoners who staff Unicor, the furniture building company that yields additional enormous profits for the local prison staff using slave labor.
Nobody seems to mind that 3 out of four released from prison will be back in five years! If anything, the prison system merely encourages more crime! It’s no wonder they will end every law and rule to keep someone who is already in prison locked up, even if no danger to society.
So much of the injustice revolves around maintaining lucrative careers and financial remuneration so much so that it borders on corruption. Just ask yourself, why do so many state and local judges own the prisons, or have a significant financial investment in the facilities to where they sentence those convicted in their courtrooms?
Finally, we see how with all this injustice in place, how easy it is to use the justice (or should I say, injustice) system to go after political enemies and whistleblowers. This weaponization of the justice system is used as a political vendetta where crimes are manufactured out of thin air in an attempt to silence those who are calling out corruption by our nation’s leaders. U.S. Representative Steve Stockman and I are examples, but many more exist.