The system does not want societal masses to fully understand how the sentencing guidelines work. If so there would be a huge outcry. However, the more people that get locked down for years sad to say is the only way that one day we can expose the legal system for what it really is. A numbers game. More and longer sentences mean more jobs in the legal empire from jailers to judges to six figure fee both honest and corrupt defense counsel.
Take away all of the prisons and its inmates and you end up with all the corrections and police officers on welfare. All the other administrative and non degree support staff will also be on public assitance. A very sad system we created.
Mr. Protass, I read your excellent article after being directed to it by Professor Douglas Berman's sentencing blog. As a non-lawyer who has become acquainted with this issue and other (to me, at least) surprising aspects of our legal system, I was delighted to see such a clear and understandable discussion of this topic.
I have told some of my middle-class friends about sentencing based on acquitted conduct, and they look at me in total disbelief. Such a thing is incomprehensible to them. The problem is, most non-lawyers have no idea that this occurs.
Please write an article on this topic for Time or Newsweek or as an op-ed in the New York Times or some similar venue where the rest of us can learn about it. It frightens me that the vast majority of even the educated public has no idea how our legal system really works. (A friend who is a psychology professor actually thought everyone accused of a crime got a trial!) It is equally disturbing that at least some in the legal profession seem to think this ignorance on the part of the public is just fine.
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Dillu Laymen,
The system does not want societal masses to fully understand how the sentencing guidelines work. If so there would be a huge outcry. However, the more people that get locked down for years sad to say is the only way that one day we can expose the legal system for what it really is. A numbers game. More and longer sentences mean more jobs in the legal empire from jailers to judges to six figure fee both honest and corrupt defense counsel.
Take away all of the prisons and its inmates and you end up with all the corrections and police officers on welfare. All the other administrative and non degree support staff will also be on public assitance. A very sad system we created.
Posted by: Roger J. Hourihan | October 27, 2007 at 04:42 PM
Mr. Protass, I read your excellent article after being directed to it by Professor Douglas Berman's sentencing blog. As a non-lawyer who has become acquainted with this issue and other (to me, at least) surprising aspects of our legal system, I was delighted to see such a clear and understandable discussion of this topic.
I have told some of my middle-class friends about sentencing based on acquitted conduct, and they look at me in total disbelief. Such a thing is incomprehensible to them. The problem is, most non-lawyers have no idea that this occurs.
Please write an article on this topic for Time or Newsweek or as an op-ed in the New York Times or some similar venue where the rest of us can learn about it. It frightens me that the vast majority of even the educated public has no idea how our legal system really works. (A friend who is a psychology professor actually thought everyone accused of a crime got a trial!) It is equally disturbing that at least some in the legal profession seem to think this ignorance on the part of the public is just fine.
Posted by: disillusioned layman | September 11, 2007 at 12:04 PM