http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/07/08/1400369/-Detroit-teenager-sentenced-to-5-years-in-an-adult-prison-for-giving-officer-an-intimidating-look?detail=email
Yes, this is real life.
In a powerful investigative report by Dana Liebelson of Huffington Post, she revealed some deeply disturbing facts about about a Detroit teenager who is currently serving a five year prison sentence in an adult penitentiary after being cited for giving law enforcement an intimidating look.
In Detroit, a 17-year-old girl who misbehaved was sentenced to up to five years in the adult prison system. Afterwards, she tried to kill herself multiple times and was subjected to a cell extraction by prison guards that a use-of-force expert called "wrong and clearly dangerous.”
Jamie, as we’ll call her, was initially sentenced to two concurrent six-month sentences for a fight with a family friend. She was given a special youthful status that allowed her record to be scrubbed clean, as long as she met certain good behavior standards. But she was sent to an adult prison to serve her time, and while there, she lost that status and was given a longer sentence for the same crime.
You must be wondering what she did right?
Stab a guard?
Smuggle drugs?
Start a prison riot?
Get into a fist fight?
Nah, none of that.
Records and reports from the prison reveal that she was cited for giving guards an "intimidating look" and sentenced to serve up to five full years in prison after the citation.
New documents obtained through an open records request, which arrived after the initial story was published, reveal that her disciplinary record appears fairly mundane. The only misconduct tickets she received prior to the new sentence were for defying an order and giving a guard an "intimidating look," and yelling at an inmate who allegedly had slapped her on the back of the head.
Jamie was originally sentenced in January 2012 for throwing a brick at a family friend and breaking her glass mail chute. (Jamie denied the assault and the police report notes that the brick may not have, in fact, hit the friend.)
In a wealthier county in Michigan that includes Ann Arbor, kids with this status generally do community service, like helping out at the local science museum. Jamie was sent to serve her time at the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility, a prison that holds inmates convicted of crimes like first-degree homicide.
i have always felt that an element of the judicial system is not fit to be in position to lord over others making life changing decisions. in some of these decisions like this one it's like the facts are not even in consideration and those children get disproportional punishment IMO because the system allows it very little oversight i also think it plays into right wing agenda of warehousing and keeping the beds full either for privatizing or seeding for privatizing.
we also know that many of these institutions rent out prisoners to private concerns and states, this is a cash cow and they intend to milk it dry or until we elect people who will stop the exploitation of our children and adults within the penal system. note they do these things to the larger population because they are poor and can't really make enough noise to be heard like those with money.
corporate America needs poor people like fish need water, that is why they fight to keep the status quo under education, low wages, and fewer opportunities because of all of the above. it's a vicious cycle they will not give up we can take it though by our vote if we just get out there and do it.
