Doing Time...
2013-10-18 21:53:35.212482+00 by
ebradway
7 comments
I got side tracked after reading a
WAPO article Dan linked to and was reading another article on Yelp reviews of Prisons. Something in the article hit a nerve, completely
unrelated to the article. Stephen Whitmore, spokesman for Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, stated:
"You’re doing time for committing a crime."
I suspect that's a common perception held by prison administrators. But people in prison are "doing time"
due to a change in legal status. That change in status is not actually due to the commission of a crime.
Rather, it's the result of a legal proceeding.
[ related topics:
Erotic Law Archival
]
comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: made: 2013-10-18 22:01:13.047257+00 by:
Dan Lyke
And related, that thing a few days ago where a man appeared before a judge in a futile attempt to be declared not dead brought home that not only are "guilty", "not guilty" and "innocent" legal states which may not have anything to do with whether or not the person in question actually did the acts of which they are accused, so are "dead" and "living" merely legal states that have nothing to do with biological activity.
#Comment Re: made: 2013-10-19 19:17:25.51296+00 by:
Larry Burton
Dan, I don't think there is a legal state called "innocent". Legally you are
either "guilty" or "not guilty." There may be a presumption of innocence until
proven guilty but no one is ever declared "innocent" in a court of law. By the
same token I believe people are declared "dead" by the court but not "living."
There is a presumption of "live" until declared "dead."
#Comment Re: made: 2013-10-19 20:22:42.097019+00 by:
andylyke
But after being declared dead, you can never be declared live. Maybe it could be argued that if you hang around for seven years you could be declared live, mush like the inverse.
#Comment Re: made: 2013-10-20 03:51:21.839126+00 by:
Mars Saxman
Laws regarding inheritance and survivorship assume that death is a one-way transition. Perhaps he'd have better luck being declared "undead".
#Comment Re: made: 2013-10-20 11:34:14.796008+00 by:
TheSHAD0W
[edit history]
"You're doing time for committing a crime."
http://www.opposingviews.com/i...heme-reach-25-million-settlement
#Comment Re: made: 2013-10-20 16:27:25.228801+00 by:
Dan Lyke
Larry, true: I guess "innocent" is the condition where the state hasn't yet made a guilty/not-guilty judgement.
#Comment Re: made: 2013-10-21 19:20:06.182021+00 by:
Dan Lyke
Direct link to the wire article that Shadow mentioned, and we'd mentioned previously that judge in Pennsylvania who was getting kickbacks to send kids to particular detention centers.
What I'm shocked at is that the two judges got charged and convicted, but I don't see any indication that the slimeball operators who were paying the bribes got anything but off scot-free, and if the one judge got a clean million bucks off this, then the $2.5M is a fart in a windstorm. The victims in this case should get all the assets of the corporation and the people who ran it, and enough additional that they've got a good lien on any further earnings while the real perpetrators spend out the rest of their lives living under bridges.