TAL: Crime and (excessive) punishment

This week's epsisode of This American Life, Very Tough Love, (430.mp3) is worth listening to. Ira Glass investigates a drug court in Glynn county Georgia where you definitely don't want to piss off the judge, lest you get an "indefinite" sentence to "think things over" in solitary. Drug courts exist in various forms across the United States, and are usually setup with procedures for beating the root causes of addiction. Glass shows several examples of excessive sentences in the Glynn county court which are out of the "norm" for other drug courts across the country. He paints the picture that this is a court with a "hanging judge" setup mostly to meet her sadistic needs. The irony presented here is that defendants voluntarily enter the court because they think they'll get out of jail sooner. They think the system will treat them fairly for minor possession cases. Careful there, in this age of privatized prisons and kickback schemes, this is just another example of when the system gets their hooks into you, they're likely to keep you, maybe for a long time.

Glass's story is from Georgia- that's all the way across the country. However, a story in yesterday's Salt Lake Tribune shows the same excessive punishment goes on here, too. And the whole thing is reminiscent of the John Sinclair imprisonment for 2 joints.