Comments on: A Plea for 924(c) Reform

By: Jean Vitayanuvatti

Jean Vitayanuvatti — Sun, 12 May 2013 03:44:30 +0000

This Plea for 924 (c) Reform was posted in May of 2012 and a year later I see 4 responses which just about sums it up. Most Americans have no clue as to what’s going on in our prisons and jails. They don’t know about the huge chunk of change that the BOP sucks out of the DOJ every year and the fact that it’s growing at a fantastic rate. They’re unaware of the abuses of “solitary confinement”, Administrative Segregation, Protective segregation, and the several different kinds of segregation that all amount to the same thing…abuse in the form of sensory deprivation. Our nation’s prisons are now our largest psychiatric institution and those with mental illnesses are poorly cared for. Those inmates who are healthy in mind and spirit won’t be that way for long. A recent wave of flu and pneumonia that swept through our country late this winter, and packed my local hospital’s emergency room was magnified in our prisons. I was horrified to find out they were charging $35.00 PER TREATMENT in a federal penitentiary for pneumonia, without verifying what kind of pneumonia it was and as for those who couldn’t afford it, well that was just tough. Most of these inmates are indigent and the federal government (taxpayers) has accepted the responsibility for the medical care and feeding of the prisoners. What the inmates actually receive in the way of medical and psychiatric care is shameful. They stop the drug treatment programs but they do, however, have the funds to renovate the officer’s dining room; spare NO expense. This actually happened. Inmates, meanwhile, were walking around hacking, wheezing and spreading germs. Last year, one inmate I’ve spoken with was shaken because he witnessed the death of another inmate. Two guards stood outside the sick (pneumonia) inmate’s cell while he died and they did nothing. The penitentiary was in lockdown, and the rules specified no guard could open a cell door without a lieutenant present. So the inmate dies waiting for a lieutenant to show up. Nobody sees these things because they don’t want to look and they don’t want to know. If they knew they would be compelled to act, so it’s easier to look the other way. I have written letters to wardens, BOP Regional Directors, BOP National Directors and Senators on the Judiciary Subcommittee for the Constitution, Civil and Human Rights. I’ve had mixed success. The point is, we ARE OUR BROTHER’S KEEPER. Every single one of them. Every man, woman and child, even in the midst of their worst act, has within them the seed of restoration. I’m not advocating throwing out all punishment for wrongdoers. What I am fighting for is balance and reason within the criminal justice system. It’s all about politics and money now, with the judiciary getting dragged along behind through the mud. Being “tough on crime” may be the rhetoric of 30 and 40 years ago, long since shown to be a dangerous direction, but it still has politicians quaking in their shoes if the outdated barbs are shot in their direction. The money. Yes, the money involved in the Prison Industrial Complex and how it needs to grow with a steady influx of bodies. That’s a whole lifetime worth of issues and battles. Lastly, the precious 924 (c) charge. How Congress has played with that one. There’s the armed robbery. Then there’s the “Felon in Possession of a Firearm”. Then there’s the 924 (c). This is called overkill. I want to know how it ever came about that you could charge someone for a thought process. I always thought that unless you committed the act, it didn’t count. How can you have a gun in your belt, refuse to touch it or physically employ it in any way, and be charged as if you brandished or fired the weapon? If a man has committed 200 bank robberies and never pulled a gun in the commission of a robbery, even though he possessed one at every robbery, honestly, do you think that this robber is inclined to be very careful as to the use of his weapon? Who is more dangerous, the robber or our ex Vice President? Charge the robber for all of the bank robberies or 10 of them or 5. Charge him for being a felon in possession of a firearm in addition to these armed robberies, but then to add a charge for employment of a firearm in the commission of a crime when he did NOT employ a firearm? That’s just criminal. Remember that 21 years is about the maximum that any person would get in European countries for some serious crimes. They actually serve, on average, about 12 years. We’re so out of step, and America has the number one spot for doing many things that no country would want to be known for doing. It was time for change a long time ago. Peace.

By: joe blow

joe blow — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 18:06:27 +0000

I found myself on the wrong end of that 924c law and after serving over a decade I prison I’m out working full time and a small business on the side I work 60 to 70 hrs a week pay thousands in out of pocket taxes to pay for poor financial decisions by our government and neverending entitlement programs because a good chunk of our population has been taught live on welfare, the fed prison system is a dismal failure its a warehouse with no rehabilatation whatsoever I’m very lucky I made it out and a success but the system almost guarantees inmates to fail once released so I can sympathize with a case like this and many others

By: Rosa

Rosa — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 15:05:44 +0000

My husband has been in prison over 35 years, was going to parole hearing every 3 years, never got in trouble. To get to the point, he went this time to his hearing and they denied him and told him SEE YOU IN 5 Years???? He’s went from level 5/2 now!!!! do you know of anything I can do??

By: Ed Martin

Ed Martin — Fri, 11 May 2012 22:51:59 +0000

The wheels of justice need oiling, only WE, can do our best to stop the backlash of rusty gears as these slow moving wheels gain momentum and begin to turn fairly, for the poor individual who receives a prison sentence as long, unrealistic and out-of-place as Adam B. Clausen has been handed. Perhaps the mockery of considering incarceration itself to be seen as a “rehabilitative” reconstruction of the inmate’s values, personality and demeanor, when in actuality, a 213 year prison sentence reflects little more than an administrative, but figurative “death sentence”, viewed by the logical mind as being (in contrast to the crime), both cruel and unusual. My rage is against the machine, the system that refuses to learn from it’s failures. It’s all about money, our money, an endless fountain of funding for the frivolity of our administrators, from the zealous prosecutors to the apathetic judges who cop-out on the fact that the Federal Government has effectually “handcuffed” them, tied their hands in the foolishness of stacked sentences that defy logic, compassion or reason. Those who support Adam, will continue to help him, meantime the onus is upon those who don’t have to know him or his plight, they just have to take a glimpse into his situation and keep foremost in their mind, the concept of justice as we civilized beings are guided by heart and conscience, looking into the obvious disparity surrounding Adam’s 213 year prison sentence. Hopefully, the hearts out there who long for fairness at a tremendous cost savings, will carry Adam’s torch, a few yards forward. If you aren’t moved enough to do it for Adam, think of it as doing something good for America.

By: Mary Kehrli

Mary Kehrli — Fri, 11 May 2012 18:05:39 +0000

I’m all for justice. Injustices must be fixed. 924 c is an example that should be changed. This is a perfect case to show why.