wrote about D.<\/a> last summer after learning he’d been arrested — again — and was this time facing a life sentence.<\/p>\nHe didn’t get life. But recognizing a three-strikes catastrophe looming, he plea-bargained and is now serving 8 years. His first-degree assault charge was dropped to malicious mischief with more than $5,000 damage and use of a deadly non-firearm weapon. <\/p>\n
“Three strikes” is a misnomer. I got a look at D.’s court paperwork from the latest case plus the full record of his encounters with the local courts. His “three strikes” are actually 12 felonies in two states since 1990 and 17 cases before the local courts (felony, misdemeanor, and infraction) since 2002.<\/p>\n
I don’t possess all the gory details of what D. did in his most recent life-botch. I gather he smashed up a car with a blunt instrument while trying to get at his brother, who was inside. And of course D. had meth both on and in him at the time.<\/p>\n
I know prison is a pathetically poor (and fundamentally anti-libertarian) solution to a problem like D. Better some burglarized homeowner had put him out of his (and everyone else’s) misery several crimes ago. <\/p>\n
Still, I admit I felt satisfaction, learning D. had finally gotten something other than his standard “one year in prison and one year free before going back to prison on some new charge” sentence. I’m not particularly proud of that. <\/p>\n
D. is one of those strange people who thrives in prison, where every moment of his day is structured by Authoritah. So I doubt that the 8 years (or however long he actually serves) in the penitentiary will result in any real penitence or reform. He’ll read his bible and proselytize his cellmates as he always does. He’ll regale his relatives with stories of how he’s changed. Really, truly, this time. <\/p>\n
Then whenever the state finally turns him loose, he’ll just go right back to his lifelong ways — until somebody finally shoots him. <\/p>\n
Sure, prison’s a poor solution. But at least he won’t be damaging good people for quite a few years, which is better than the way matters previously stood. There’s simply no good<\/i> solution for the D’s of the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It’s ignoble to admit it. Or rather, it’s ignoble to feel it but I might as well admit it. I’m feeling grouchy and vindictive today and glad somebody “got what was coming to him.” The somebody is my felonious acquaintance D. He finally got the sort of prison sentence he’s been looking for. I wrote about D. last summer after learning he’d been arrested — again — and was this time facing a life sentence. He didn’t get life. But recognizing a three-strikes catastrophe looming, he plea-bargained and is now serving 8 years. His first-degree assault charge was dropped to…<\/p>\n
Continue readingLess-than-life sentence<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous","ratio-natural","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23994\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}