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Should a Terminally Ill Prisoner Have to Die Behind Bars?

By Liliana Segura, AlterNet. Posted December 5, 2008.


Montell Johnson was sent from California to Illinois to be executed. His sentence was commuted. Now he's dying from medical neglect.

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Montell Johnson is a 42-year-old man who spends every hour of every day in a hospital bed. He can't move, and he can't talk. He eats through a feeding tube inserted into his stomach. Years of inactivity have taken their toll: "He has no body tissue or muscle now," his mother, Gloria, says. "He's very sensitive to touch, and so it's excruciating pain when you touch his body … There's nothing really there to protect him." He weighs 70 lbs.

Johnson suffers from multiple sclerosis, a chronic and debilitating illness that attacks the central nervous system and erodes a person's capacity for basic functions. He is in the final stages of MS and is suffering from a long list of related and other ailments, including hepatitis C, which threatens to take his life. Just over a year ago, a doctor gave Johnson less than six months to live. That he has defied the prognosis is undoubtedly due to the dedicated care of his mother, rather than the quality of his medical care. That's because Johnson is not at a hospital. He is a prisoner at Sheridan Correctional Center, in La Salle County, Ill.

Five days a week, Gloria Johnson-Ester drives from her home on the South Side of Chicago to Sheridan, two hours away ("two-and-a-half to three in traffic"). Since her son was diagnosed with MS in 2001, she has seen his health deteriorate dramatically due to gross medical neglect by the Illinois prison system.

"Inmates aren't considered a priority," she says, "but I always tell people, they are human beings. … Whether they are guilty or innocent, when they get sick, you treat them."

Johnson was convicted of murder in 1999 and sent to death row. In 2003, his sentence was commuted to 40 years, and on Oct. 30, 2008, Gov. Rod Blagojevich commuted his sentence to time served. This means the state of Illinois has no legal basis for keeping him incarcerated. But now he faces a new challenge: the possibility of extradition to California for a different charge. For Gloria, who has been fighting for years to bring her son home for the last months of his life, this would be an unthinkable defeat.

"I know one thing," she says. "If they take me away, then he'll just give up."

"An Easy Conviction"

Johnson was sentenced to die for the 1994 slaying of Dorianne Warnsley. Warnsley, 23, died a harrowing death, first shot and then beaten with a hammer and stabbed with a screwdriver. Her body was found in a cornfield in Macon County, Ill. She was five months pregnant.

Johnson has admitted that he was on the scene the night Warnsley was killed, but he insists that he did not commit the crime. To some extent, his actions belie his claims: Johnson left Illinois for California after it happened, adopted a different name, and then was arrested for another killing and robbery, getting a life sentence. When the state of Illinois sought to bring him back to be tried, he maintained his innocence. He still does.

Johnson has many supporters who believe him. Perhaps none is more significant than Terry Hoyt, Dorianne Warnsley's mother.

"The judicial system in Macon County sucks," she says over the phone on the day after Thanksgiving. "I'm not a teenager, and I'm using that word. It should be totally investigated.

"My daughter was murdered in '94. The guy who actually committed the murder was not arrested until three years later." The man she is referring to, Carlos Stokes, provided multiple confessions, only to turn around and testify against Johnson in exchange for a 15-year sentence. According to Hoyt, not only was the investigation flawed -- "The police were so far in left field it was ridiculous" -- when it came time to press charges, Johnson, who had been friends with Dorianne, was railroaded.

"The prosecutor struck a deal," says Ted Pearson, a prison-reform activist in Chicago, who has spent years working on Johnson's case.

As he describes it, Stokes, Johnson, and a third woman, Sandra Dye, "had gotten into a row with the victim, and one of them, Stokes, actually murdered her. … He didn't deny that he had confessed to that, and the woman also gave statements corroborating his. But (at trial) he said that Montell told him to do it -- so that made Montell not just guilty by being there, but also guilty by directing the whole thing." Dye was never charged.

Stokes' plea bargain -- and his eventual release -- took place without Hoyt's knowledge, a violation of her rights as a crime victim that still angers her to this day. She describes how she showed up at court on the day of his scheduled trial, only to be told by the judge, "we took care of that yesterday afternoon."


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There ain't no justice under this system. There never has been and never will be.
Posted by: Nightstallion on Dec 5, 2008 1:33 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
What my human dogs want is retribution pure and simple. Since the human dogs outnumber the humans by a factor of 99.99999 to .ooooo1 I"d say Justice is pretty slim and JUST US is the ruling majority of the day wouldn't you?

It is hard to discover there are unisexuals on both sides of fence and you are the only complete man in the industry. A man knows this system is for the crowds at the Circus, and can also see the truck loads of sybaritic yes-man bread being delivered at the gate.

All this is in grim intent of dissuading the participants from questioning the wisdom of a system that generates only bad feeling from the victims and saccharine thrills to the crowds yearning for that cloying sweet smell of the abattoir!

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if government exists to misdirect public funds then we could be much better off with anarchy
Posted by: Suzon on Dec 5, 2008 3:24 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Katrina provided many tales of heroism and courage by ordinary people and the opposite from officials. As someone who has campaigned for accountability for many years, it has always struck me that the people who govern corruptly or ineptly get a paycheck and those who struggle against injustice must pay out of their own pockets.

This was a painful article to read. We couldn't do to animals what we do to human beings.

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» Don Quixot Posted by: Don Quixote
» RE: Don Quixot Posted by: liz_imp
Son Quixot
Posted by: Don Quixote on Dec 5, 2008 4:03 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
In every country there are 3 factual justice systems one for the rich or famous, one for the middle class and one for the poor, even if they have the same laws the legal systems and judges apply them differently.

The difference, big, big difference lies in the social systems that tend to encourage or prevent crime. In Scandinavia and the Netherlands, with the best social systems in the world, there is practically no poverty, and there is almost no crime, especially if we exclude crime committed by immigrants, in NL 36 times higher than for native Dutch.

And in the US, the least social country with perhaps the worse social system of all modern countries, you have the highest crime rate, with 2.3 million people in jail. And 80 million weapon owners does not help this, despite the incredibly absurd arguments of the NRA, believed by many Americans who love weapons. If you have more weapons you have more crime, not less, as crime is committed usually with weapons.

If you want to change crime you have to change your social system first. Simple.

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» RE: Son Quixot Posted by: douglashoyt
» RE: Son Quixot Posted by: barefeet
» RE: Son Quixot Posted by: barefeet
» We need our weapons. Posted by: rafaeltoral
It's not about the justice system, it's about the medical system
Posted by: rickiey on Dec 5, 2008 5:04 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Why should this guy who, even if he is telling truth, only killed ONE person, be given government funded medical care when working single parents can't get it for their children?

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» American Veteran Posted by: rickiey
» are you kidding me? Posted by: rafaeltoral
For two Reasons certainly and perhaps more permutations of the same.
Posted by: Nightstallion on Dec 5, 2008 5:40 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
One: for sure, is that we still do not know for certain this individual killed anyone.

Two: I and more than I have seen the raveges of Multiple Sclerosis and how it affects the extremities.

If you know anything about this disease you know what I am speaking of if you don't go look it up. Generally there is not enough controll of the fingers to manipulate a weapon in most cases. As advanced as this persons disease is described I doubt that he was even physically capable of killing anyone even before he left the first murder site.

This individual is suffering something that will kill him as sure as any injection and well before the date originally stipulated anyway. His mother is in the unenviable position of not wanting her son to be the Goat for two murders one of which is admittedly done by another perpetrator.

The man is not going to survive any trial set here in the west so the Circus is not even fed a good sacrifice. It is too much like killing an exsanguinated wolf. The thing is dead already what is the point?

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slave labor,awful conditions,chain gangs
Posted by: sicntired on Dec 5, 2008 5:52 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
All these things were deemed as cruel and unusual punishment so America had two choices.!pay a man a decent wage for his labor to give him money for inside and upon release.Give them decent clothing and proper tools for the job being done.2build private and ultra secretive private prisons in which you supply only the bare necessity for life and use chain gangs and provide private contractors with cheap labor so that the prisoners are slave labor.Guess what road was chosen?

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PRISON HEALTH CARE IS A COMPLEX ISSUE...
Posted by: drricklippin on Dec 5, 2008 6:56 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Yet the old cliche is a society can be best judged on how it treats its prisoners.

A related story in NY TIMES today relates to the treatment of criminals in hospitals

Are hospitals and jails merging?

No easy answers?

Dr.Rick Lippin
Southampton, Pa

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Don't complain..we have the best justice money can buy!
Posted by: reelectnoone on Dec 5, 2008 7:52 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It was said earlier in these comments and it is true. Justice in America is doled out based on the ability to pay...just like medical care.

People in the "free world" without money do without medical care. Why would anyone really be surprised that we don't take very good care of those we lock up.

Everything in America is about money. Those without do without...without medical care and without justice.

Join me at Joe the Voter and let's start getting our voice together on this.

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CHECK THESE PEOPLE OUT !! CURE
Posted by: reelectnoone on Dec 5, 2008 7:54 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Check out this non-profit. I have donated web sites and computer help to them for 20+ years. They do great work but need people to wake up and use their voices to effect change.

They have many state chapters and are now going international as well.

Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants.

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i am sorry but----
Posted by: jrmart on Dec 5, 2008 9:22 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
i am sorry but-- why wasn't this man removed from a state paid facility when his sentence was commuted?
why are the taxpayers of Illinois footing the no doubt horrendous medical bill?
why was his sentence commuted in the first place. As far as i am concerned he was at the murder scene, he has been implicated in other murders. he did not contract ms in prison.
i feel sorry for his mother, but Joe Stalin and Adolph Hitler had mothers who loved and supported them too. that is what mothers do.
as i see it Calfornia would be stupid to want him back and Illinois is stupid to keep him.
send him home to die.
and lets not make this a case to stand on. The judicial system is a mess, but this is not the person to champion.

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» RE: i am sorry but---- Posted by: Schlarmie
RE: SAd
Posted by: Harris20 on Dec 6, 2008 12:31 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Did the person he murdered die with dignity?

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Cruel & Unusual Punishment - Human Rights Issues
Posted by: DivaDeb on Dec 5, 2008 10:35 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I started out thinking "so, what, a Dexter killer-type is suffering, yeah, he should." However, after reading the whole article, I changed my mind.

WHY I FEAR JAIL:
Fear of inept medical treatment is what keeps me from going to protests & demonstrations. I have multiple health problems that are not obvious (diabetes, constant pain, high blood pressure, migraines, psychiatric).

An acquaintance was picked up in one part of the state for a minor traffic violation, but was transferred to a prison awaiting trial for charges from a previous employer (that were dropped - but he was there a month). The horror stories he told me . . . that they will not just give you medication, they will test you themselves and assess you themselves (some dip doc who couldn't get a private job), and then decide what to give you. I know I would suffer alot before getting any help. Yeah, "Tylenol" - and I am sure they would ignore all the allergic severe reactions I have had to some meds.

CRUEL & UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT
I think it is cruel and unusual punishment to not provide proper medical care to prisoners. Now, did he need to get $1000/month Avonex shots to hold back the disease? No. Should he have seen a neurologist and had his pain managed? Yes. Psychiatric help? Yes. It sounds like he was neglected with all those bedsores.

If he is on a freakin' feeding tube - he needs to go die at home. He should be getting hospice care.

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loukorn@hawaiiantel.net
Posted by: copwatcher on Dec 5, 2008 1:14 PM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Our police, our courts, our prisons, do not protect ordinary folks from people who harm them, but have become harmful, degrading, wasteful institutions, corrupted by virtually absolute coercive power, promoted by public relations that hide and distort truth. These institutions reflect our corrupt government, servant of the truly “ruling class,” a kleptocracy privatizing the commonwealth, ecosystems that constitute the planet’s life.

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No room. No room.
Posted by: gar1948 on Dec 5, 2008 1:47 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
There is no money or facilities to deal with people like this because our prisons are full of horrible, nasty drug users who have to be locked up.

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Human Rights Violation
Posted by: FemaleVet on Dec 5, 2008 1:54 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
This is an awful example of OUR human rights violations. How can we, the wealthiest nation on the face of the planet, go around pointing fingers at the atrocities of other nations regarding their treatment of humans when something like this undeniably happens.

This man should be allowed to spend the rest of his life, what is left of it, with his loving and caring mother. God help us.

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Bob Marley had it right, but he was not circumspect enough to see the whole Mcguffin.
Posted by: Nightstallion on Dec 5, 2008 3:09 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I don't expect anyone to set right down and write a letter to a Congress member or Representativee in the house. However, anyone can see that this justice system is far worse than archaic. It is indeed a criminal of its own.

It will deny medical aid, humanitarian treatment, buy unwholesome foodstuffs to cut costs and make matters worse in any situation. I do not like this practice, for both personal and impersonal reasons. I do not want the responsibility for killing anyone but if I must accept that then perhaps I ought to be the one doing the killing instead of letting JOE DO IT!

At least then I would be reasonably sure I had the right perpetrator.

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No Woman No Cry
Posted by: opmoc on Dec 5, 2008 3:49 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Bob Marley - No Woman No Cry

Bob Marley = a Legend = a Prophet = a God

Tony

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Interesting case in NM
Posted by: civilsavage on Dec 5, 2008 4:04 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Link to a recent sentence handed down to a convicted man with AIDS

A lot of people in the area (and nationally) that are aware of the case consider his AIDS-affliction punishment enough. Makes one wonder what kind of treatment (or lack thereof) he will get in prison.

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People Get Arrested - Particularly Where There is a Death Involved and They are Totally INNOCENT
Posted by: opmoc on Dec 5, 2008 4:12 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Society Wants Revenge After a Death. There has Got To Be Found Someone For The Crime - Anyone - It Doesn't Matter Who - Hopefully They Might Have Done It.

But The Justice System - Is NO LONGER intereseted in Finding The Truth - whether or not the Accused is Innocent or Guilty...

Sure The Defence Will Do as Good a Job as The Funds Allow - But The Prosecution - Funded By THE STATE Is ONLY Interested in Winning The Case For The Prosecution.

The Prosecution may well become aware of evidence during the case that PROVES without Doubt that the Person They Are Prosecuting is TOTALLY INNOCENT.

Not Only Will The Prosecution NOT Make This Evidence Available To The Defence - They Will Completely Ignore It and Produce An Enormous Web Of Lies To Win Their Case - And Send A Person They Know 100% is Completely INNOCENT To Jail For Years

They Also Do It To The Most Lovely Caring WOMEN in Society

http://www.carers4carers.co.uk/

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So the best thing you can do if you get arrested and are completely innocent is Say Yes I Did It
Posted by: opmoc on Dec 5, 2008 4:26 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
This Totally Fucks Them Off and so they say - well O.K. if you completely admit to it -we will not have to spend a fortune proving you are guilty and will do a deal with the judge to get you a suspended sentence - you won't have to do any jail time at all - just agree -just fill in this confession and sign it

AND YOU SAY

STICK YOUR CONFESSION UP YOUR FUCKING ARSE YOU EVIL BASTARD

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My 17 Year Old Daughter Has Got a Criminal Record and Is Completely Innocent
Posted by: opmoc on Dec 5, 2008 5:05 PM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
When she was 15 - she was celebrating the end of summer with all her friends in the park - and was walking home with them as it started to become a bit dark and the Sun was coming down - about 9:30 PM

With her friends she was walking down this tree lined road near our home - and Suddenly A Police Wagon turned up with Loads of Police.

My daughter kept walking - she had done nothing wrong - and just wanted to walk home.

All her friends ran for it - and didn't get caught

My 15 Year old daughter was thrown to the ground with a knee in her back - and handcuffed from behind - and thrown into the back of the police van (commonly known as the meat wagon)

She was then taken to the Police Station and interrogated for hours and thrown in a police cell with the doors locked behind - so she could only see through the bars

She REFUSED To Even Give Her REAL NAME and ADDRESS

She Wouldn't Tell The ARSEHOLES WHO DID THIS TO HER ANYTHING EXCEPT SNARL IN THEIR FACES

And so we were wondering where she was - and found out from one of her friends that she had been arrested.

The Police Wouldn't Let Me See Her Until 4 Hours Later at 3:00am

And I Signed Everything they put in Front of Me

And They Didn't Formally Charge Her With Anything - And They didn't Take Her To Court - Just Gave Her a Formal Warning a Week Later that I Attended and Continued To Grovel To The Police About What a Wonderful Job They Were Doing

But She Had Her DNA Taken and Is On The UK Police Record Database and She Can't Gain Admittance To America - Unless She Spends MONTHS Applying for a Visa and Admits that She Was Arrested By The UK Police

So Of Course My Wife and I Felt - Well She Must Have Done SOMETHING Wrong - for her to be treated in this most horrendous way

And then we found out from numerous friends - that their teenage kids TOO had also been arrested for doing nothing wrong - and had had their DNA taken - and not been charged with any offence

And so it is UK Government Policy to Arrest All Teenagers and Take Their DNA

In The UK - We Live in a Police State

If It Hasn't Got This Bad in America Yet - It Will - If You Don't Get Off Your Arse AND PROTEST

Tony

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» protest doesnt work anymore. Posted by: rafaeltoral
AND YESTERDAY The EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEMANDED THAT THE UK GOVERNMENT DELETE
Posted by: opmoc on Dec 5, 2008 5:16 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
MY DAUGHTERS DNA FROM THEIR DATABASE - and DELETE EVERYONES DNA THEY HAVE TAKEN WHO HAS NOT BEEN CONVICTED OF A CRIMINAL OFFENCE

Tony

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Our Daughter Is Not Only Completely BEAUTIFUL and Lovely Inside And OUT
Posted by: opmoc on Dec 5, 2008 5:39 PM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
She Has MORE COURAGE Than Anyone I have Ever Met in My Life.

She is NOT Going To Let Any FASCIST ARSEHOLES Change her life in any way - except just to make her EMOTIONALLY STRONGER

She will Stand Up To You

And Take Your Photograph in a War ZONE if Necessary and Show Through Her ART and CHARM That She Will Not Put Up With Any SHIT.

Girls are much Stronger Than Boys.

Tony

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And So She Got Arrested Again Coming Home From An Under 16's ROCK CONCERT In Our Village
Posted by: opmoc on Dec 5, 2008 5:58 PM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
She Wasn't Doing Anything Wrong - She Was Just Walking Down The Street - Arm in Arm - Shoulder to Shoulder With Her Girl and Boy Friends

They weren't doing Anything Wrong - and I Know Because I Know The People Who Organise These Teenage Gigs - That There is Absolutely No Alcohol or Drugs Allowed - and I KNOW That the people who organise can spot ANY Drug Taking a Mile Off - because they are Experienced - and It Is Simply NOT Allowed in Under 16's

And so the police chuck about 10 kids in the meat wagon - and they go round the surrounding area delivering the kids who accept them in complete shame and disgust

And the meat wagon stops outside our house, and her friend gets escaorted across the road to her shocked parents

But Katy just sits there in the meat wagon refusing to get out - and Vicki - my Son's Girlfriend - spots her - and drags her out of the Police Van saying - NO You REALLY DO NOT WANT TO JAIL AGAIN

And so We Get Yet Another INVITE To Attend The Police Station With OUR DAUGHTER - and then I think they may have realised - and phoned and said - no its O.K. - We'll Come Round Your House Again and Just Have a Quiet Informal Chat - It Won't Go on any Records and She Won't Have Her DNA Taken Again

And So I Pretended Not To Be There. I went outside and had a smoke instead. It wasn't worth me exploding in fury in front of these policemen and women in my house. Normally when they have come round they have been very helpful with regards to my kid's friends who they have been sheltering from their violent parents

Tony

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OUR Children Are Not Just Minnows In The Pond To Be Netted and Have Their DNA Taken
Posted by: opmoc on Dec 5, 2008 6:21 PM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Most of these kids will go to the Best Universities in The UK

Sure we know they are just easy meat

The Cops Daren't Go Into The Sink Estates - Where All The Real Shit Is Going On

NONE of The Kids Where we live have guns or knifes or want to kill anyone or even have a fight with anyone

I Read a Thread on Alternet Yesterday about the NRA and I Was Horrified

We don't do that here - well not much - there was a kid killed stone dead with a gun at Streatham Ice Rink - and My Daughter Was There The Moment It Re-opened To See Her Gay 16 Year Old Boyfriend Dance Magic and State Quite Clearly We Will Not Be Terrorised

She asked me to take her to the Train Station and Travelled There By Herself And Got Interviewed By The Police Yet Again - No She Wasn't There When The Kid Got Shot and Ran into the Ice Rink on the Previous Saturday Night and Died in a Pool of Red Blood on the Ice in Streatham in South London in England

Tony

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The NU-Labour UK Government Runs Everything on Numbers and Quotas
Posted by: opmoc on Dec 5, 2008 6:45 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
And So It Trickles Down To The Local Police Force - And for them to achieve there numbers and quotas all they have to do is to arrest a certain - high number of people and gain the right number of prosecutions and demonstrate the Government Objective Portrayed in The Numbers That Crime is Reducing

And so you a copper given an objective of making so many arrests - about what it doesn't matter - and it doesn't matter if they are innocent or guilty - just arrest and get the numbers up

Because if You Don't - Then You Are Not Only Letting The Side Down - Our Local Police Force - But If You Don't Get The Right Numbers - You Will Either Be Fired Or Re-Deployed to an Area Wher You Will Not Only Be Holding On To Your Gun - But Your Balls As Wel and Will Have a Cork In Your Arse For Protection

And So You Just Arrest My Daughter and All Her Friends and Fill In The Paperwork - And get a Promotion

(Sorry - Its Not Just The Police- It's Endemic Throughout British Society at tHe Moment)

I'm sure Americans do it better

tony

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For two reasons . . . . and they remain the same!
Posted by: Nightstallion on Dec 6, 2008 2:22 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I didn't have to be there. I REPEAT I know the raveges of that disease. I have cared for three cases one of which was a lady friend, and personally know over two dozen others who have this disease.

It effectively seals a person off from the rest of the world as the disease progresses till you have a human being locked in a body that the person can no longer control. The person remains alive in pain and in extreme cases unable to even communicate.

The stages of progression vary from individual to individual, but the end is generally always the same unless something halts the disease. Not even so called physicians know what the "something" is.

Yes seen from a certain perspective NO ONE is innocent of ANYTHING, being 62 I know this quite well. However, I choose to err on the side of humanity. Nothing is lost in this error people are people, some stupid, some blind, some just by fuck heartless; I don't have to be that way today.

In Gods world creatures die the mannor of their passing can be viscious or gentle, God plays no favourites and everyone from Ameoba through Zebra dies someday, But the spark of God in me says: "I will do my utmost best to treat all equally."

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ok, so...
Posted by: jstepp590 on Dec 6, 2008 12:44 PM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
he was convicted of muder and sentenced to the death penalty. Perform the sentence and we won't have to have this conversation.

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Big complex mix of ideas
Posted by: PaulK on Dec 6, 2008 5:37 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
First, why don't we kill killers to show them that killing is wrong? Because, statistically, the state killing killers sets off waves of unstable borderline people who kill the innocent. The state serves as all of these nuts' role model. Have a problem, solve it with a murder. That's why no other civilized or half-civilized country has our murder rate.

Why do we give enemy soldiers first aid and surgery? Because it's in the Geneva Convention, and we're an honorable country.

Why do we take care of prisoners on death row? Because we're not real sickos, and if the judge says don't kill them yet, we're honor-bound not to cheat. Occasionally we pull an innocent man back from death row on appeal.

Why don't we take care of our own vets? Why do they freeze on the streets? Beats me. Let me rethink that "sickos" term for a minute.

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1)No one should have to die in prison2)No one should die from bad care
Posted by: NYCartist on Dec 9, 2008 11:26 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I had 2 friends with MS. (I am disabled,not MS.) One died from cancer 3 days after diagnosis because all the new symptoms were incorrectly assumed to be more MS. MS does not have to be fatal.

Another friend, paralyzed for many years after a car crash, died when he was sent to a large hospital in the SCentral part of the US to have his bedsores treated (his small town and next larger town couldn't handle it,they said). Within 3 weeks, he was dead of MRSR infection, picked up at the large hospital. The only good thing, he and I both joked to his family member, separately, was that he couldn't feel the pain (due his spinal cord break).

Neither person I just wrote about was in prison. I do have a couple of pals in prison. One has had to fight for clean catheter tubes (to remove urine from the bladder)required by people who are paralyzed below the waist. There is a high rate of infection from reusing catheters.

Since the prisoner is dying, and only 70 pounds in weight, can't run, why not let him be at home with his mother with any attendant care he needs come in, or let him chose where he'd like to spend his last days. Makes sense to me. Is there any compassion in our society at the government level of politicians/managers?

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Should a Terminally Ill Prisoner Have to Die Behind Bars?
Posted by: MiiPandaa on Dec 10, 2008 1:42 PM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Should a Terminally Ill Prisoner Have to Die Behind Bars?

Yes. Yes, for the simple fact that the health status of his victim was never a consideration when he committed his crime.

If the question is, "Should he still be in an Illinois jail?" then the answer is No, because that system has run its course. This man ~could~ be released to his mother *if* California courts decide as the Illinois system had. If not, jail. He's not in there because the state chose to be mean to sufferers of multiple sclerosis; he's there because he murdered someone.

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The Solution to the Problem is OBVIOUS: DO NOT GET ENTANGLED IN THE CRIMINAL 'JUSTICE'SYSTEM
Posted by: joeocho88 on Dec 10, 2008 2:18 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It doesn't matter who you are --although I think African Americans and Native Americans get victimized more than most and that is simply:
DO NOT GET INVOLVED IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM!

DO NOT DO ANYTHING THAT ATTRACTS THE ATTENTION OF LAW ENFORCEMENT!

DO NOT DRIVE DRUNK!

STAY AWAY FROM PLACES WHERE KNOWN CRIMINALS HANG OUT!

DON'T GO TO PLACES WHERE YOU KNOW THAT DRUGS ARE SOLD--ESPECIALLY CLUBS THAT ARE LICENSED TO SELL ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES --ALCOHOL AND DRUGS WHEN TAKEN TOGETHER EQUAL TROUBLE!

IF YOU ARE A SINGLE WOMAN DO NOT GO TO CLUBS ALONE AND TRY TO DRESS MODESTLY! DON'T WEAR A BLOUSE DOWN TO YOUR NAVEL OR A MICROMINI THAT PRACTICALLY SHOWS THE LABEL OF YOUR THONG UNDERWEAR ! ALWAYS MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE NOT BEING FOLLOWED WHEREVER YOU GO AND KEEP A CONTAINER OF PEPPER SPRAY CLOSE! KEEP A CELL PHONE CLOSE BY IN CASE OF EMERGENCY AND SOME FIREARMS TRAINING WOULDN'T HURT EITHER.

DO NOT BUY DRUGS IN PUBLIC PLACES WELL-KNOWN TO THE COPS! ( If you HAVE to have Drugs, at least KNOW YOUR DEALER! but if she or he has been arrested lately and is out rather soon, he or she has probably copped a deal to be a snitch and you will get snitched on so BE CAREFUL!)LOCK YOUR VEHICLE DOORS WHEN YOU LEAVE IT AND WHEN YOU GET INSIDE!
ALWAYS GET THE LICENSE PLATE NUMBER OF SUSPICIOUS VEHICLES AND DO NOT PULL OVER FOR ANY VEHICLE UNLESS IT IS A FULLY MARKED POLICE CAR. ( VERIFY WITH 911).

IF YOU ARE POOR, NO MATTER WHAT COLOR YOU ARE, STAY THE HELL OUT OF EXCLUSIVE NEIGHBORHOODS WHERE RICH PEOPLE LIVE!

IF YOU DRIVE AN OLDER VEHICLE, ONLY DRIVE IT DURING THE DAYTIME!

DO NOT PUT ANYTHING WRAPPED IN FOIL OR REFLECTIVE ON YOUR DASH BECAUSE LOTS OF DRUG DEALERS AND USERS PUT SOME OF THEIR DOPE IN FOIL AND THE COPS WILL COME LOOKING.ONCE THEY HAVE YOU PULLED OVER, WELL, YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT...

WHEN YOU GET ON THE BUS, MAKE A QUICK SCAN OF THE PASSENGERS SO YOU WON'T SIT NEXT TO ANYONE WHOM YOU PERCEIVE TO BE THREATENING AND DON'T MAKE EYE CONTACT WITH ANYONE THEREAFTER. YOU CAN ALSO WEAR EARPHONES NOT ATTACHED TO A iPOD OR OTHER MUSIC PLAYER;THIS DISCOURAGES CONVERSATION AND YOU CAN STILL HEAR WHAT IS GOING ON AROUND YOU.

STAY HOME AT NIGHT AND LOCK YOUR DOORS AND WINDOWS! With all of the home invasions lately, don't take the chance YOU might be next.

IF you have a firearm, KEEP IT AT HOME AND KEEP IT LOCKED UP OR AT LEAST HIDDEN WHERE KIDS AND INTRUDER CAN'T FIND IT!

IF YOU ARE IN THE AGE GROUPS 12-30 NO MATTER WHAT COLOR YOU ARE, DON'T WEAR THE BAGGY PANTS AND OVERSIZE SHIRTS --ESPECIALLY IN RED,BLUE,BLACK BECAUSE ONCE THE POLICE THINK YOU ARE A GANG MEMBER, YOUR LIFE WILL BECOME A NEVER-ENDING SERIES OF HARASSMENT!

This applies to EVERYBODY and NOT just to one group because there NEVER has been and NEVER will be ONE GROUP of people who are responsible for ALL of the CRIME!

Your job is to find out where the high crime areas are and AVOID them.

This is NOT a comprehensive list but I think it may help someone. I hope other people have things to add that will help people to NOT be victims of crime.

IF YOU ARE POOR,NO MATTER WHAT COLOR YOU ARE, YOU WILL NOT GET JUSTICE IN THE COURTROOM WITHOUT THE MONEY TO PAY A GOOD CRIMINAL ATTORNEY!

So don't do the things that get you arrested, that get you into court in the first place!
And better,still, don't be a victim of the guys who get arrested and are criminal defendants in court.

I am terribly sorry for this African American man who is suffering so terribly in prison but he should have looked at his companions a little closer! before he hung out with them.

P.S. I am Half-Native American and have personal experience with this topic.

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