I have a subscription to the ‘ Rolling Stone’ magazine. Considering I am past 75 and have no interest in the articles on music, I still enjoy the magazine. I am amazed at how many in-depth articles they feature on a wide range of material. The last issue, Jan 11-25, had an article about Massachusetts titled “And Justice For None: Inside Biggest Law Enforcement Scandal in Massachusetts History”. A quote from the article sums up the theme, "This could just be the tip of the iceberg," says one expert. "Prosecutorial misconduct is rampant in America."
Read it Here
The article features two persons who worked in the state lab processing drug results. One person stays high using samples from drug busts. The other person always comes back with the result that the police are looking for and she can do 3 times as many as any other employee. The result for the state is that tens of thousands of drug tests are not valid. In addition, even when the process was discovered to be bad, prosecutors did not want to re-examine cases. To quote, “Matt Segal has sued on behalf of the wrongfully convicted: ‘You had misconduct by a crime-lab chemist and an agregious case of prosecutorial fraud’”.
After years of fighting, “In a single day, April 19th, 2017, almost 22,000 people had their Dockhan convictions waived-it was the most in U.S. history”.
I had just completed the book “Blind Injustice” by Mark Godsey. One of the subjects he covered was tests that are made to prove someone is guilty. I was surprised to find that even fingerprints are not a good indicator and the results can be swayed by the expectation of the police. Identification of suspects is also suspect with the result more likely to be the one police expect and subtle pressures exerted even though the police are unaware of their actions. The author’s opinion is that only DNA tests can be completely correct and then they still need to be done by someone blind to the expected results.
We have over 2 million people in jail. Many will serve time because they plea bargain to keep from having more serious charges brought against them. Many sit in jail waiting for a court date because they can’t afford bail. Many of these are innocent, but without funds for an attorney, they end up in jail.
The waste of humanity, of resources, of justice, has been addressed successfully in different cities and states. But it has been a patchwork of different programs and seldom does everything come together in one place for justice to work as it can. I wrote a book, “JayWalkers Shouldn’t be Shot” under my pen-name Pete Williams and in that book, I lay out how a city, or preferable a state, can step by step change their justice system. The first steps don’t cost anything, but immediately start emptying out prisons and jails saving enough to finance the next steps. I show examples and one of my favorites is how under Gov Perry, Texas closed 2 prisons, saved 100’s of millions of dollars and reduced their crime rate. It is a shame they only addressed a small part of their justice system.
My book is available on Amazon.