Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/11/17/80-of-people-who-died-from-covid-in-texas-jails-had-never-been-convicted.html
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The carceral state sucks. And it sucks because it is what we demand it to be, as a society.
Remember this the next time someone you don’t like (because they’re genuinely shitty or not) gets a bond you think is too low, or the prison/jail system doesn’t act punitively enough for your tastes when it comes to unsympathetic defendants. We’re all guilty of it to some degree or another, but the system is really good at highlighting the people we all dislike to hold up as examples of how we should be getting “tougher” on crime, at highlighting the judges who supposedly go too easy on criminals, and when that ratchet tightens and the carceral state gets “tougher,” these are the kinds of outcomes that are inevitable.
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A Republican spokesman said:
“The system works!”
He then punched the air, and called his stockbroker to sell his shares in privatised prison companies, because fewer inmates means fewer government bucks.
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One way to keep the bond amount reasonable, is if the prosecution is liable for the hard expenses in obtaining a bond in the event of an acquittal.
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oh weird, they didn’t look into private jails and prisons? Geepers, I sure hope that prisons and other inherently violent institutions weren’t privatized to explicitly avoid this kind of public oversight…
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Relevant:
She didn’t name names, but something tells me they ran on BLM=terr’rist platforms.
ETA:
Ooooh, I like that! And it’s not without similar precedent such as when the loser in a personal lawsuit has to pay the attorney and court fees to the winner.
Of course, I assume that the response from various governments would be to set up a slush fund and pass it along to the tax payers.
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This headline suggests a scandal that doesn’t exist. It’s like saying “80% of people who died from COVID in nursing homes have never been convicted.”
Convicts are kept in prisons, not jails. Most people in jails are awaiting trial.
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It’s NOT okay to put ANYONE in a position to die while in state and/or federal custody, especially if they are NOT on death row! Yes, it’s a fucking scandal.
Are you suggesting it’s okay to let people die in a pandemic, if they are in either jail or prison?
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I assume that people who have died in jail, and never get to see court have their charges dismissed as there’s not any point in pursuing them?
If this is the case, perhaps the surviving families can sue the ever living shit out of the for profit businesses that run these places on a basis of not adequately safeguarding the health of someone who never had any charges cemented against them?
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What other would there be? The only money governments have is taxpayer money.
I like the concept, but I would hate for jurors to be swayed by the idea that it is too expensive not to convict, if they are on the fence.
The covid deaths should not happen, and it is a scandle that do many people have died in what would seem a relatively easy place to control.
However, you have to admit that this was a headline worthy of Doctorow.
We should not have such a large prison population in the first place. Our society is broke.
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What’s not said here that is worth pointing out for the hundredth or thousandth time is that there is a focus on incarcerating minorities. So these deaths no doubt disproportionately affected non-white individuals.
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