CURRENT EVENTS
Mississippi, Will You Please Change Your Racist Ways?
“The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind.” — Bob Dylan
When I first read this news story there was no mention of race. It was a story about a man who did not have his cell phone confiscated when he was put in jail. The guy didn’t know that having a phone in jail was illegal, so when he asked the guard to charge his phone for him, the authorities threw the book at him, 12 years worth.
He appealed. He’d been arrested for a misdemeanor and hadn’t committed any crimes since 2001. Yet the high court judge stated (and I paraphrase), “Gosh, 12 years isn’t a bad sentence. The law would have permitted us to give you a 15 year sentence.”
Tonight, the story in Reason shows a photo of the recipient of this judge’s kind and generous act, 12 years instead of 15.
What’s weird is that we frequently hear about overcrowded prisons. Why, then, waste precious prison real estate for such trivialities?
It leads one to question the whole purpose of prison in the first place. Has the subject of prison reform come up in the Dem debates? Just curious.
What bothers me most is that Nash has a wife and three kids who are dependent on him.
Ultimately, I see it as more bad PR for the State of Mississippi. Whatever happened to common sense?
Related Link
“It makes you ashamed to live in a land where justice is a game. “— Bob Dylan
