Louisiana Continues to Prove Just How Louisiana It Is

[TomC]

The lady in Connecticut inherited her mother's house. She may have to sell it to pay the debt.

She also committed a crime that got her a 2 1/2 year sentence.

What makes you sure that she's paying a per diem, rather than restitution? Her Gofundme page?
Tom

 

[Toni]

The lady in Connecticut inherited her mother's house. She may have to sell it to pay the debt.

She also committed a crime that got her a 2 1/2 year sentence.

What makes you sure that she's paying a per diem, rather than restitution? Her Gofundme page?
Tom

Well, if this is the same person, it IS her per diem, which liability likely she never heard of until the state came after her. Some former prisoners are being charged per diems for time they served years before the law took effect.

At $249 per day, Connecticut prison sentences leave ex-inmates deep in debt

HARTFORD — Two decades after her release from prison, Teresa Beatty feels she is still being punished. When her mother died two years ago, the state of Connecticut put a lien on the Stamford …

www.courant.com

It is wrong to go after people who have served their time for the cost of their incarceration. This sort of action very much undermines peoples’ abilities to build a stable life after they have served their sentence.

I wonder just how ‘tough on crime’ politicians would be if states actually paid the cost of incarcerating prisoners.

 

[Politesse]

The lady in Connecticut inherited her mother's house. She may have to sell it to pay the debt.

She also committed a crime that got her a 2 1/2 year sentence.

What makes you sure that she's paying a per diem, rather than restitution? Her Gofundme page?
Tom

She sued the state of Connecticut, over it, which is why it made the news. All of this is a matter of public record.

Her crime was getting caught selling a pound marijuana, back in the late 90s. The reason its an issue now is that her mother died and left her an inheritance, activating the lien on future income and causing the hefty bill to be issued.

Do you feel this crime is worth decades of suffering and effectively an $80,000 fine? I suppose you might. After all, you seem to think that "many" people go to jail because they like the accomodations so much. Perhaps you would like to sell your house so you can afford your next jail stint in, as dear Jimmy puts it, "Paradiso". The good news is that all you have to do is sell some pot, my friend.

I can even report you personally to your friends the police, if you like. Make sure you get a good photograph of yourself doing the drug deal, and whatever you do, don't let them talk you into a plea deal.

Those can get expensive.

The funny thing about these laws is that they don't really punish habitual recidivists, who will never be ought long enough to pay their bills anyway. They punish people most in danger of recovering and becoming respectable citizens; people who have started to recover somehow from their stint in jail.

 

[TomC]

There is a lady in Connecticut that owes $87,000 for 2 1/2 year sentence.

The lady in Connecticut inherited her mother's house. She may have to sell it to pay the debt.

That's all the information available on IIDB concerning the case.

She sued the state of Connecticut, over it, which is why it made the news. All of this is a matter of public record.

If I were confident that every lawsuit filed accurately represented the reality, I'd have a different opinion about Donald Trump.
Tom

 

[Toni]

There is a lady in Connecticut that owes $87,000 for 2 1/2 year sentence.

The lady in Connecticut inherited her mother's house. She may have to sell it to pay the debt.

That's all the information available on IIDB concerning the case.

She sued the state of Connecticut, over it, which is why it made the news. All of this is a matter of public record.

If I were confident that every lawsuit filed accurately represented the reality, I'd have a different opinion about Donald Trump.
Tom

See the link in my post#22 for the link.

Here it is again, in case you can't find it:

At $249 per day, Connecticut prison sentences leave ex-inmates deep in debt

HARTFORD — Two decades after her release from prison, Teresa Beatty feels she is still being punished. When her mother died two years ago, the state of Connecticut put a lien on the Stamford …

www.courant.com

It is possible that it's a different person than the on that robnisch referenced in post 11 but I think it's the same one. If there are two different cases, then it's worse, not better.

 

[robnisch]

There is a lady in Connecticut that owes $87,000 for 2 1/2 year sentence.

The lady in Connecticut inherited her mother's house. She may have to sell it to pay the debt.

That's all the information available on IIDB concerning the case.

She sued the state of Connecticut, over it, which is why it made the news. All of this is a matter of public record.

If I were confident that every lawsuit filed accurately represented the reality, I'd have a different opinion about Donald Trump.
Tom

See the link in my post#22 for the link.

Here it is again, in case you can't find it:

At $249 per day, Connecticut prison sentences leave ex-inmates deep in debt

HARTFORD — Two decades after her release from prison, Teresa Beatty feels she is still being punished. When her mother died two years ago, the state of Connecticut put a lien on the Stamford …

www.courant.com

It is possible that it's a different person than the on that robnisch referenced in post 11 but I think it's the same one. If there are two different cases, then it's worse, not better.

Same case

 

[bilby]

Are they being held against their will

They're in PRISON.

Duh.

 

[bilby]

I do know that lots of people get out and then go back in very quickly.

To me, that's the really big problem.

To me, it's a problem completely unrelated to the OP. Perhaps you could start a thread on it, rather than posting about it in a thread with only the most vague and tangential connection to the issue.

The problem under discussion in this thread is people NOT getting out at all, even though they should.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

There is a lady in Connecticut that owes $87,000 for 2 1/2 year sentence.

The lady in Connecticut inherited her mother's house. She may have to sell it to pay the debt.

That's all the information available on IIDB concerning the case.

She sued the state of Connecticut, over it, which is why it made the news. All of this is a matter of public record.

If I were confident that every lawsuit filed accurately represented the reality, I'd have a different opinion about Donald Trump.
Tom

Beatty v Lamont

Connecticut residents are suing to eliminate Connecticut’s prison debt law.

www.acluct.org

Nearly twenty years ago, from 2000 to 2002, Ms. Beatty was incarcerated for drug charges. Today, Ms. Beatty is a certified nursing assistant, a Stamford resident, a mother and grandmother, and a caretaker for her older brother, who is disabled. In 2020, her mother passed away, leaving Ms. Beatty a portion of the home where Ms. Beatty, her brother, and her family live. Once that home is sold, Ms. Beatty will desperately need her inheritance to put a roof over her and her family’s heads. Yet shortly after her mother’s death, the State of Connecticut came after Ms. Beatty, demanding $83,762.26 for her time in custody, including when she was incarcerated pre-trial because she could not afford bail.

Ms. Beatty’s case is not unique. Under Connecticut’s prison debt law, the state currently charges people $249 per day, or $90,885 per year, for the cost of their incarceration – more than what an in-state student would owe for 2.5 years’ attendance at UCONN, including housing, food, and books.

 

[Toni]

There is a lady in Connecticut that owes $87,000 for 2 1/2 year sentence.

The lady in Connecticut inherited her mother's house. She may have to sell it to pay the debt.

That's all the information available on IIDB concerning the case.

She sued the state of Connecticut, over it, which is why it made the news. All of this is a matter of public record.

If I were confident that every lawsuit filed accurately represented the reality, I'd have a different opinion about Donald Trump.
Tom

Beatty v Lamont

Connecticut residents are suing to eliminate Connecticut’s prison debt law.

www.acluct.org

Nearly twenty years ago, from 2000 to 2002, Ms. Beatty was incarcerated for drug charges. Today, Ms. Beatty is a certified nursing assistant, a Stamford resident, a mother and grandmother, and a caretaker for her older brother, who is disabled. In 2020, her mother passed away, leaving Ms. Beatty a portion of the home where Ms. Beatty, her brother, and her family live. Once that home is sold, Ms. Beatty will desperately need her inheritance to put a roof over her and her family’s heads. Yet shortly after her mother’s death, the State of Connecticut came after Ms. Beatty, demanding $83,762.26 for her time in custody, including when she was incarcerated pre-trial because she could not afford bail.

Ms. Beatty’s case is not unique. Under Connecticut’s prison debt law, the state currently charges people $249 per day, or $90,885 per year, for the cost of their incarceration – more than what an in-state student would owe for 2.5 years’ attendance at UCONN, including housing, food, and books.

And may I point out that the price for an in-state student to attend UCONN for 2.5 years (or 4) is outrageous.

 

[Toni]

You may not be aware of this, but pretty much the defining feature of prison is that the inmates don't have any choice whatsoever about when they're going to be released.

Why do you think I'm unaware of this?

You might not be aware of this, but lots of people prefer a predictable life where someone else handles the decisions and pays.

I'm not one, neither are you or Jimmy I'm sure. Nobody on this forum is.

But they're out there. I've known some in my long and checkered past. I'm confident it has a good deal to do with recidivism. People who have been controlled for months or years find the real world overwhelming.
Tom

This, btw, is a primary tactic for retaining soldiers in the Army: how there are no jobs out there waiting for them, how they (and their family) will lose on base housing and all of those benefits. Throw in: you'll be letting your squad down! My kid, the one who had a running list of reasons he would NOT re-enlist, updated regularly throughout his deployment very nearly re-enlisted. While he was deployed in Afghanistan (and people were already under immense pressure to re-up), from where occasionally I'd receive an email telling me that if a notification detail showed up, he was really OK, it was someone else in another platoon...

For many, if not most people, status quo is easier or at least easier to contemplate, than figuring out what to do next.

 

[TomC]

I do know that lots of people get out and then go back in very quickly.

To me, that's the really big problem.

To me, it's a problem completely unrelated to the OP. Perhaps you could start a thread on it, rather than posting about it in a thread with only the most vague and tangential connection to the issue.

The problem under discussion in this thread is people NOT getting out at all, even though they should.

I'm sure I'm not the poster who brought up the case of a rich Connecticut drug dealer getting dinged by Connecticut.

I don't care enough about her case to even click a link because it is irrelevant. I'm also sure that what little information is available is more agenda driven than accurate and complete.
Tom

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

I do know that lots of people get out and then go back in very quickly.

To me, that's the really big problem.

To me, it's a problem completely unrelated to the OP. Perhaps you could start a thread on it, rather than posting about it in a thread with only the most vague and tangential connection to the issue.

The problem under discussion in this thread is people NOT getting out at all, even though they should.

I'm sure I'm not the poster who brought up the case of a rich Connecticut drug dealer getting dinged by Connecticut.

I don't care enough about her case to even click a link because it is irrelevant. I'm also sure that what little information is available is more agenda driven than accurate and complete.

Of course, the DoJ came out with the findings of their investigation on Louisiana prisons and people being overheld by the state... and you just made up some bullshit for that too, because you know some people. So it isn't like agendas are really a concern for you... just disagreeing and then getting pissy when people call you on any of it by saying that either you 'never really cared' or 'that's nice love'. Which really then begs one to wonder, why you even bothered posting. But we'll leave that to the philosophers and your subsequent and inevitable evasion.

 

[TomC]

you just made up some bullshit

What did I make up?
Please be specific, not just some vague mischaracterization.

Also, why is a rich drug dealer in Connecticut an issue in this thread?
Tom

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

you just made up some bullshit

What did I make up? Please be specific, not just some vague mischaracterization.

Ever consider the possibility that many inmates don't particularly want to leave? That they're rather comfortable living in a predictable environment, with taxpayers supplying everything that they really need?

That'd be the bullshit I was specifically referring to. The context is pretty clear, if the DoJ is investigating, someone made notice of prolonged incareration. DoJ determined that was happening. And your passive-aggressive response (because apparently holding people past their sentencing in prisons is now "woke" of something) was that some people want to be held in prison longer.

Of which, if that were the case, likely the DoJ wouldn't have been informed of anything wrong going on... forget investigate it and threaten the state to fix it or go to court.

Also, why is a rich drug dealer in Connecticut an issue in this thread?
Tom

Well, technically you brought it up with your retort on free stuff prisoners get. People then object saying 'it ain't free' and now you whine that people are derailing the thread about the price of being in prison?!

 

[TomC]

That'd be the bullshit I was specifically referring to.

You mean a question I asked? And backed up the inference?

Sorry pumpkin. It wasn't bullshit just because it didn't fit your paradigm.

Well, technically you brought it up with your retort on free stuff prisoners get.

That's some bullshit there.
I didn't bring up the Connecticut drug dealer. Somebody else did.

This is why I asked for specifics, not just vague mischaracterization. Like the bullshit you just posted.
Tom

 

[bilby]

It's easy to see that people don't, in general, want to stay in prison; The evidence is the same as the evidence that people, in general, didn't want to stay in East Germany.

Sure, there were lots of East Germans who liked living there. But the existence of a high wall, with razor wire, guard dogs, watch towers and searchlights rather suggests that the desire to stay wasn't universal.

And it shouldn't need to be said that if a single person has reached the end of their prison sentence, and wants to leave, but is prevented from doing so, that's a serious violation of their rights even if every single other prisoner were keen to stay inside.

 

[TomC]

It's easy to see that people don't, in general, want to stay in prison;

It's easy to see that most people don't.

But they do make choices that result in prison all too often.

We aren't talking about the bulk of them either. We're talking about a minority who are in there longer than required by the judge.

I see it as similar to homelessness. Most people don't want it and do something to obtain housing. Some do not, for a huge variety of reasons. I'm not a mindreader, so I don't pretend to understand why homelessness happens so much.
I'd rather try to figure out what the problems are and work on them, starting with easier ones to resolve.
Tom

 

[Politesse]

I don't care enough about her case to even click a link because it is irrelevant. I'm also sure that what little information is available is more agenda driven than accurate and complete

How comforting (and time saving!) it must be to simply assume that one knows, rather than actually knowing. How easy to dismiss the lives and struggles of others when you know very little about them, and avoid learning more.

 

[TomC]

I don't care enough about her case to even click a link because it is irrelevant. I'm also sure that what little information is available is more agenda driven than accurate and complete

How comforting (and time saving!) it must be to simply assume that one knows, rather than actually knowing. How easy to dismiss the lives and struggles of others when you know very little about them, and avoid learning more.

That's some more bullshit, of the vague mischaracterization variety.

I don't claim to know. I said that. I don't find the one irrelevant case important enough to bother wading through a bunch of agenda driven "reporting".

Tell me. Why did the rich Connecticut drug dealer get mentioned in the first place? How is that case relevant to the OP?

I think I know. But I'm curious about your opinion.
Tom