TO: NAACP, US Department of Justice, President Obama, Fellow Americans, others,
This a real and personal experience for me and my friends-all three have graduate degrees and sons, who have been caught in the "rush to Plea Bargain" and "Probation re-arrested and extensions!" Our sons have not committed a crime that caused harm to others. They are the victim of "victimless problems"caught in "Black Boy Rounds Ups," that locked them into a perpetual sentence of probation. All finished college and are now at home because no one will hire them in light of their records. The economy compounds this tragedy. They are the throwaway "Black Men Children" of the new day!!
Scruggs
Dear Sir or Madam:
Please consider printing the article given below in your paper. Edit where needed.
DR. J. ALVA SCRUGGS
FRANK(LY) SPEAKING
OR LETTER TO EDITOR 1804 MAYFAIR DRIVE
TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA 32303
PHONE andFAX (850)385-5750
E-MAIL JSCRU5750 (at) AOL.COM
Website ; http://franklyspeaking.info
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BLACK BOYS TRAPPED BY LAW AND SCREWED IN LOCK DOWN!!
Over forty readers responded to the article entitled, “BLACK MALES VICTIMS OF VICTIMLESS CRIMES AND BAD JUSTICE; TRAPPED AND SCREWED!!! (Scruggs, Westside Gazette, August 13, 2005).” These responses came from Florida area codes called include 954, 407, 305, 813, Palm Beach, etc.
The article described briefly, the processing and plight of Blacks in the Criminal Justice System. The essence was that:
Black Boys or Girls have allegations against them, which are filed with the courts and the common practice of private lawyers, or Public Defenders to go directly to “Plea- Bargaining” without any discover conducted by them for their client. In clearer words this Plea Bargaining is done based solely on the allegations of the plaintiff and the information they submit in their discovery that supports their position(s).
This type of “Plea Bargaining” normally results in the defendant child getting a sentence, which includes some combination of Probation, community Service, and/or jail time.
The interesting thing in this plea-bargaining is usually carried out between the attorney and the Prosecutor or the Public Defender and the Prosecutor. You notice that the defendant and the parent are left out of the meetings. In fact these Plea-bargaining is regularly carried out by phone. In this plea bargaining system, most of these children-defendants will not have the chance to prove themselves not guilty.
Children will have signed on to pleading guilty or no contest even if they are obviously innocent. Of the 90% who accept probation over 80% will never get through probation period without more probation time added for violations and will get more probation time or going to jail for violations of the probation. There are about 600,000 Black males in US prisons at this time. A great number started as boys just like these described in this article.
Examples of responses received by phone are as follows:
1. Caller number one: My son has been in lock down sense he was in the 12th grade. They took him to jail from the school because a girl said that he was “stalking” her on the school grounds. He went from 30 months probation and 20 days community service to two additional months probation to lock down when we had to move. I called his probation officer and told her about our moving. But she said that I did not and gave him more probation time. In jail he was trying to be a man and be strong but the guard said he was defiant and gave him two years in "lock down." All this came from something a young girl said in school.
2. Caller number two: My son was placed in Juvenile lock down by a judge for being "in the way of harm" while he was with me. I had a small habit of using grass and my boy friend was staying with me but my boy was safe. He was raped while he was in lock down - charged with being defiant and- a troublemaker and given one more additional tear. My son can never be a man now. Please help me!
3. Caller number three. My son was reported a by a jail guard as being “Defiant.” When Black Boys are trying to be strong and show that they can "take it like a man." not by talking back but by silently taking their punishment or bad treatment they are called defiant and given more punishment and more time in lock down.
Recommendations for changes or solutions:
1. Public defendants and private attorneys did all plea-bargaining without the attendance of the client or their parents or other family Meetings for plea-bargaining must include child, parent or surrogate parent, Public defender for child or private attorney of child and the State Prosecutor.
2. The child’s attorney must have done a discovery of information on behalf on the client before plea-bargaining.
3. Plea bargaining must not be done using only the information submitted by the plaintiff in support of tier allegations against the child.
4. Stricter Rules must be adapted for proof by the probation officer that the child has violated probation.
5. Since a Black male child is encouraged to be a man and be tough or strong, proof of violation of probation for being defiant must have a high level of proof.
6. If a defending attorney goes to court with only the discovery provided by the plaintiff his court privileges must be revoked. The court must ask the defending attorney if he has conducted discovery on behalf of the client and if he has information other than that provided by the prosecuting attorney. Finding no such evidence the attorney fees must be returned to client, he must be placed on probation and fined and the defendant must be allowed to get a different attorney.
7. No agent of the court, attorney, prosecutor, judge, and clerk shall own a private jail or whole any stock in such a business.
We all must get involved. Call your State Legislator and Congresspersons.
Dr. J. Alva Scruggs
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STOP PLEA BARGAINING BY ATTORNEYS, WHO DON'T CONDUCT DISCOVERY FOR THEIR CLIENT!!
It is generally agreed by all intelligent Americans that our Criminal Justice System has room for some real improvement. Of the over 2 million prisoners in our system today about 80 percent were placed there for “Victimless” crimes”. The written laws may need some redoing but the great injustice comes by the administration of our present laws by the attorneys, judges, and officers on the street.
After looking at the process of placing these Americans in jail, one inequity stands out as the cruelest. It seems that the process of “Plea Bargaining” has become a tool of convenience mainly for both prosecuting and defending Attorneys and the courts in particular. It makes money quickly for the attorneys and the court while cutting down the time and effort of the system.
Most alleged criminals are “Plea Bargained” without the process of discovery or investigation conducted by the representative of the defendant. In other words based on just the allegations of the accuser, the attorney for the defendant goes directly to Plea Bargaining. This most always results in the defendant being judged guilty and sentenced without the due process of an investigation on the accusd behalf!!
An excellent and effective way to stop this injustice is to fine any attorney of the defendants, who goes to plea-bargaining for a client without the effort of investigation or discovery for the defendant shall be substantially fined and sentenced to time in prison!! I know personality of an attorney, who without any discovery, conducted Plea Bargaining by phone with the State Attorney's Office for ten Clients at one time. At about $5,000.00 per client that amounts to $50,000.00!! Good work if you can get it!!
Amy Goodman: How Two Former PA Judges Got Millions in Kickbacks to Send Juveniles to Private Prisons
By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!
Posted on February 17, 2009, Printed on February 19, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/127461/
Amy Goodman: “An unprecedented case of judicial corruption is unfolding in Pennsylvania. Several hundred families have filed a class-action lawsuit against two former judges who have pleaded guilty to taking bribes in return for placing youths in privately owned jails. Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan are said to have received $2.6 million for ensuring that juvenile suspects were jailed in prisons operated by the companies Pennsylvania Child Care and a sister company, Western Pennsylvania Child Care. Some of the young people were jailed over the objections of their probation officers”
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AMERICAN HAS ONE OF EVERY 136 OF IT’S CITIZENS EITHER IN JAIL OR IN THE CRIMINAL SYSTEM SOME WHERE!!
(WRITTEN January 2, 2009) (UNEDITED, UNABRIDGED)
It is a national shame how the media is showing/presenting the “Prison System” as just another life style.
This especially true when we view the MSNBC Show “Lock Down!” It is as though the inmates are no more than reluctant residence of a set in the stone of a “Prison Punishment” resort. There are the inmates and the guards. The guards are on the top and the inmates are on the bottom. (Elizabeth White One Out of 136 Americans in Jail, Associated Press, 22 May 2006)
The prison system as the US practices it today is not a rehabilitation institution. It is a repressive lock-down cruel operation. What can you expect from an inmate or resident if you place them in a 10' X 10' room with their open toilet in the rear for twenty-four hours a day, without any human interaction or positive stimulating input. It is more than any sane mind can endure and remain a human member of a civilized society. This is not the raving of a Liberal. Bleeding Heart, Milk toastier, Do-gooder. It is the sober conclusion of a rational thinking socially responsible American Citizen. American looks at an inmate as they are and asking why, instead of looking at them as they should be and saying why not!!
The insanity and criminal training gained by the inmate while in our “correctional/punishment institutions” is a breeder of the antisocial deviants we see in our ex-inmates. Further, even if the inmate, by some miracle, gets rehabilitated they are not turned back into society with the ability/tools to get a reasonable job because a can is tied to his tail. They are permanently labeled a criminal, which keeps them from being considered for gainful employment. They then hang in the fringes of society and end back in the Lock-Down because of some infraction usually caused by their trying to eek out some lever of living in a society which is programmed to avoid giving them a life sustaining job!
Our Criminal Justice needs as many trained rehabilitative psychologist as they do big mean strong guards. Presently, we take some bright potential law enforcement persons and train them to in the main be a control artist using measured force and pain!! They can take a juvenile joint smoker and turn them into a hard-core thief and killer-a heterosexual child into a homosexual or a harlot!
Of course there are the insane criminals and unrepentant criminals. But these should not be used to destroy the other wise potentially salvageable but unfortunate public.
Dr. J. Alva Scruggs, BS, MS, MA, EdD
Look Forward to Your Comments
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bsite ; httpWe://franklyspeaking.info
