Go to jail, Mom.

[Sunrazor]

I think the State of Michigan will take into account her community service to date, etc. There have been a couple of former “terrorists” who have turned up leading otherwise normal lives, and their circumstances have been taken into consideration. I agree that the crime itself needs to be considered – the women who did the actual murdering in the Manson cases, for instance, probably will never see the light of day (I think that’s already been thoroughly hashed out in GD sometime in the past few years).

I can’t imagine Michigan not taking a fairly lenient if stern posture in this case; the lady obviously got hosed royally by the court. I’d be surprised if she didn’t get a wrist slap for the escape (which is a separate violation, mind you) and some kind of probation for the original drug charge.

Any bets on how long before she appears on “Oprah”?

[mangeorge]

@Chimera

Yeah well, trying to blow up cops is a something guaranteed to get other cops stirred up. Herion is a serious crime, but domestic terrorism, especially during the period of “The War on Terror” is guaranteed to elicit a hard response.

But hey, she’s local, and I heard all the crying and whining about her case. :rolleyes:

My point, in the context of the full reply, was in response to those saying that being a white woman was the only reason that she (Susan) was getting any sympathy

[StGermain]

You think we’re excessive for wanting to put an escaped felon back in jail? This judge wants to jail a guy for sharing a Little Debbie snack cake:

MCARTHUR, Ohio - A judge in southern Ohio must decide whether to send a man to prison for sharing a Little Debbie snack cake. The case involves 21-year-old Timothy Caudill, who last year was held in a residential community corrections program in Nelsonville for breaking into a bar.

While there, prosecutors said he bought the oatmeal creme pie from a vending machine and shared it with a fellow inmate who was on restriction and wasn’t allowed access to snacks.

Prosecutors in Vinton County have asked Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Simmons to revoke Caudill’s probation and put him in prison for nine months.

Caudill’s attorney Claire Ball said that’s outrageous. Ball says keeping Caudill out of a state prison would leave cell space for a more serious offender.

StG

[Antinor01]

@StGermain

You think we’re excessive for wanting to put an escaped felon back in jail? This judge wants to jail a guy for sharing a Little Debbie snack cake:

StG

Only 9 months? I say give him the chair!

[StGermain]

Antinor01 - I think they reserve the chair for sharing fast food or cigarettes. Snack cakes only get you waterboarding.

StG

[mangeorge]

Mmmm.
Little Debbie Nutty Bars.
Worh every day of a nine month sentence.
Don’t know about oatmeal thingies.

[Evil_Captor]

I live in a state where a young man served a couple of years of a 10-year sentence for a consensual blowjob from an underage girl (he was underage too – they were either the same age or within about a year of each other). I hope the courts in Michigan are better than Georgia’s, but … I am not as sanguine as some of you are about her getting off lightly.

[mangeorge]

Counselling, for evaluation, and maybe some light probation. In San Diego.

[XaMcQ]

@phouka

What is the purpose of prison - to punish, to segregate, or to rehabilitate?

I consider prison to be a place where we segregate dangerous people from the general population and then try to rehabilitate them so they can be eventually released. Prison is great at the former, not so good at the latter. Now we have a person who defeated the first purpose by escaping and achieved the second purpose. She rehabilitated herself. She has been a productive, law-abiding citizen for more than 30 years. (By “law-abiding,” I am concerned more with laws protecting personal safety and property, not in the regulatory offenses of faking her identification.)

We don’t have endless resources to prosecute crimes. Most people recognize that the War on Drugs is fundamentally flawed and unjust, and many of us consider her original sentence to be unduly harsh. This is definitely a case where prosecutorial or judicial discretion should be exercised. Give her time served and some community service, and then leave her the hell alone.

I agree completely that we ought to reserve prison for dangerous criminals and get more creative for non-violent offenders. I think she should be punished, but I think house arrest, a LOT of community service and some high fines would be more appropriate here.

[OtakuLoki]

@XaMcQ

I agree completely that we ought to reserve prison for dangerous criminals and get more creative for non-violent offenders.

Ah, so no jail for white-collar offenders? Some nice house arrest for Kenneth Lay, perhaps? If he weren’t dead, that is.

I’m specifically snipping your suggestions for this woman’s sentencing because my comment is irrelevant to that. I really don’t disagree with you, there.

But the idea that only non-violent offenders should be incarcerated is bunk. There’s something screwy when you get a five-and-dime sentence for waving a gun and getting a couple thou in cash, but if you embezzle millions you’re only facing the same time frame. Or less. Which completely ignores that the embezzler is likely to have better representation than the so-called violent offender, too.

The idea that only violent offenders deserve jail time seems to me to be just another way to create a dual-class system for justice, exacerbating the existing inequities between the haves and have-nots in this country.

[mangeorge]

I do think the guy who threatens violence should get extra time. Using, or threatening violence (as simulating a gun), should be a seperate offence as it often is.
If you’re willing to base the sentence on the size of the take, you should consider, instead, basing the sentence on it’s impact on the victim.

[OtakuLoki]

@mangeorge

I do think the guy who threatens violence should get extra time. Using, or threatening violence (as simulating a gun), should be a seperate offence as it often is.
If you’re willing to base the sentence on the size of the take, you should consider, instead, basing the sentence on it’s impact on the victim.

I don’t disagree with any of this. I wouldn’t want to simply base sentencing on the size of the take, either. (Don’t ignore it, IMNSHO, but don’t make it the sole factor, either.) I just wanted to express my disagreement with the idea that only violent (actual or threatented) offenses should result in prison time.