Palmer Events Center
System in Texas Is Broken
RECEIVED Mon., Feb. 20, 2012
Dear Editor,
The system in Texas is broken. The presumption of innocence has been cast aside. When you are arrested and you are indigent or young and poor, you go to jail. After one month you meet your court-appointed attorney who has no financial incentive to reach out and has probably not contacted you until the first time you meet. This forces an automatic reset of the court date. Two months. If anything goes wrong? Reset. After 90 or 120 days, the district attorney offers this: "Try this case, and if you lose, we are going to press for the maximum penalty or put your finger here and go home today."
Everyone wants to go home.
You take a deal even if you feel you're innocent. This is a system. And systems need participants. Jails and prisons in Texas are now profit-based, privately run machines. Legalize marijuana and half the system shuts down. Except for the most egregious acts, white people and women don't go to jail. This is a system that creates a subclass of African- and Mexican-Americans. It is duplicitous and disingenuous. Addicts need treatment, not incarceration. And we let these people DT while in custody. Faster access to the courts and a greater financial reward for decent representation is the mandatory state of a kind state.
The system in Texas is broken. The presumption of innocence has been cast aside. When you are arrested and you are indigent or young and poor, you go to jail. After one month you meet your court-appointed attorney who has no financial incentive to reach out and has probably not contacted you until the first time you meet. This forces an automatic reset of the court date. Two months. If anything goes wrong? Reset. After 90 or 120 days, the district attorney offers this: "Try this case, and if you lose, we are going to press for the maximum penalty or put your finger here and go home today."
Everyone wants to go home.
You take a deal even if you feel you're innocent. This is a system. And systems need participants. Jails and prisons in Texas are now profit-based, privately run machines. Legalize marijuana and half the system shuts down. Except for the most egregious acts, white people and women don't go to jail. This is a system that creates a subclass of African- and Mexican-Americans. It is duplicitous and disingenuous. Addicts need treatment, not incarceration. And we let these people DT while in custody. Faster access to the courts and a greater financial reward for decent representation is the mandatory state of a kind state.
Live aloha,
Kalani Perry
Kalani Perry