Jail Gets a Bad Rap

[Finshaggy]

And say you were arrested for possession of Marijuana in Texas, but you happen to be a Hindu Shaivite.

You could argue that you were both not willingly or knowingly breaking a law, and that you were actually pursuant to Title 5 Chapter 110, which states that any act done or omitted for Religious purposes is legal, unless the Government can prove that restricting such action is in furtherance of a compelling Governmental interest, and is the least restrictive means of achieving that compelling Governmental interest. So you just have to be able to prove that there is a less restrictive mean of stopping illegal use of Marijuana, while you legally use Marijuana Religiously. Such as a location, or Temple, or ceremony.

 

[BamaBoyBeRolling]

Damn it reading this thread makes me want to go back to crack...
other than that this is informative.

 

[.ODanksta.]

Damn it reading this thread makes me want to go back to crack...
other than that this is informative.

@theexpress has dat hook up

 

[BamaBoyBeRolling]

@theexpress has dat hook up

Now I got a hookup again, time for a 30 rock... off to go sell some ass. jk jk I'd never sell ass, that don't float my boat.

 

[Finshaggy]

Damn it reading this thread makes me want to go back to crack...
other than that this is informative.

Can you imagine having this information in jail? It literally creates a little power structure in the jail, I have been a part of it before. And when you move people from pod to pod, the power structure spans pods and could fill the whole jail, or even spill into the streets.

 

[Finshaggy]

And btw, I have 0 Convictions. So it's not just possible, this is all real.

 

[Finshaggy]

And here is an example.

Someone in the jail had a charge for Organized Retail theft because he went into a Nike store to tell his friends what to steal, then he was the get away driver. And all I had to do was read the law for Organized Retail theft, and there is a dollar amount, so they had actually filed false/mistaken charges. And that was my celly, I helped him with his case and other people with their's and people started giving me free things and my celly was telling me to start making people pay soups for legal help, and they definitely would have.

People would come to me and we would have whole meetings. Like one guy was interrogated, but the Police tricked him by calling it an interview and asking him to sign away his rights, so they didn't have to read them to him. So he didn't get it, but when he told me, I was like "You just got interrogated" and then we had like a 4 day talk about what he could do from there and what he had said to them.

 

[Finshaggy]

If just 50% of people plead Not Guilty, instead of Guilty and No Contest, the whole system would slow down and probably fall apart. But Public Defenders are so horrible at their jobs that they literally have towns with 99% conviction rates, and it's not rare.

 

[electricslide]

Again bullshit you cant write letters to other inmates.

 

[Finshaggy]

Again bullshit you cant write letters to other inmates.

Maybe in some places, but I know for a fact you can. I wrote letters to my friend across the hallway and we joked about how it took 7 days for mail to get from one place we could see to another place we could see, in the same building.

And I have heard of Boyfriends and Girlfriends writing each other from each side of the jail, and having to wait a week or so for letters.

But people pass notes from Pod to Pod, which is not allowed, but it still happens.

 

[Finshaggy]

You can also mail letters out with the other inmate on the return address, and put a wrong address as the address, and it will get returned to them. I have heard of that too. So even in places where you can't, you can.

 

[electricslide]

Maybe you should go back to jail since you had such a great time

 

[Finshaggy]

Maybe you should go back to jail since you had such a great time

I have thought about it, and I am in a new town, and it is a great way to get a lot of hook ups for everything (Bhang, Mushrooms, etc), really fast. But, I would want to make sure I could win the case. So it would have to be me getting arrested for Practicing my Religion, which they will arrest me for, but the last 2 times I was stopped they actually listened to me when I explained the laws and my Religion to them. It's just 1 time they went crazy and started searching my car, just didn't arrest me, but took a bunch of stuff and filed no charges because it was all legal. But the second time, they read that first case, and decided just to let me go because I get found with weird substances all the time, so it was probably happening again they said.

 

[Unclebaldrick]

If just 50% of people plead Not Guilty, instead of Guilty and No Contest, the whole system would slow down and probably fall apart. But Public Defenders are so horrible at their jobs that they literally have towns with 99% conviction rates, and it's not rare.

Or perhaps each public defender has a caseload of about a thousand. That's the case in many states nowadays. There are many ways to deprive people of their rights - one is to just not fund the government agencies that are set up to defends those rights. More "free stuff" for the "takers".

 

[Finshaggy]

But I have asked them to return my stuff, and told them to issue a warrant if they feel like they need to, then later went back to the email and said if they really feel they have reason to keep the stuff for any period of time, then just issue a warrant now and we can settle this in court. But I got no reply.

 

[Finshaggy]

Or perhaps each public defender has a caseload of about a thousand. That's the case in many states nowadays. There are many ways to deprive people of their rights - one is to just not fund the government agencies that are set up to defends those rights. More "free stuff" for the "takers".

They could still do better.
When I got in the jail and started sending messages to the Indigent Defense Office through like 30 different people's accounts on the kiosk, the lawyers all got way better and we started seeing Habeas Corpus being used without my having asked for it, and things like that.

 

[Unclebaldrick]

They could still do better.
When I got in the jail and started sending messages to the Indigent Defense Office through like 30 different people's accounts on the kiosk, the lawyers all got way better and we started seeing Habeas Corpus being used without my having asked for it, and things like that.

Well when they get paid shit for doing a thankless job while being overworked, you don't usually get the best and brightest.

 

[Finshaggy]

Well when they get paid shit for doing a thankless job while being overworked, you don't usually get the best and brightest.

That is why I said we are in the next overhaul period. This is the time of the next big evolution in Defense. Just like when Public Defenders were first made.

 

[Finshaggy]

Just as an example, most Texas courts don't even realize that they break Texas law all day. In the Texas arraignment code it says that you have to be arraigned after the indictment, but in most Texas jails you get arraigned right after book in and get indicted later. If someone wanted to and had the money to file all the cases (even just print all the paper needed for the thousands upon thousands of cases that are arraigned out of order), they could really empty out a lot of Texas jails.

 

[Finshaggy]

And if Culpability was tested in every case, or even just 50% of cases, I am pretty sure many American jails would be way less filled, and have way less people returning.