Welcome to Texas justice: You might beat the rap, but you won't beat the ride.
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- Blawg Wisdom
- Evan Smith, Editor-in-chief and publisher, The Texas Tribune
- The Austin Chronicle
- Emily Bazelon, Slate
- San Antonio Current
- Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic
- Erica Grieder, The Economist
- Pamela Colloff, Texas Monthly
- Doug Berman, Sentencing Law & Policy
- Marie Gottschalk, author of 'Caught'
- DallasBlog
- Scott Medlock, Texas Civil Rights Project
- Solomon Moore, NY Times criminal justice correspondent
- Donald Lee, Texas Conference of Urban Counties
-Attorney Bob Mabry, Conroe
- Corey Yung, Sex Crimes Blog
Tommy Adkisson,
Bexar County Commissioner
- Dirty Third Streets
- Texas Public Policy Foundation
David Jennings, aka "Big Jolly"
John Bradley,
Former Williamson County District Attorney, now former Attorney General of Palau
- To the People
Contact: gritsforbreakfast AT gmail.com
5 comments:
Well, bully for Ms. Cotton. Go forth and shove random people that you don't like no more! Because yeah, that's an effective way for a TEENAGER to deal with frustration. By shoving people. Holy cow.
Anyway, this is going to be fun in the future...TYC has the ability to track these kids specifically, in the event they, oh, I dunno...just happen to end up back in TYC or on probation or in TDCJ, say, at some point in the future.
I'm no fan of resocialization, but comparing recidivism of these 'releases' with others is going to be interesting...hmmm, wonder if that will make the headlines a year from now?
Setting aside your sarcasm for a moment, if possible, could the headlines a year from now really be worse than the headlines in the last month? We've been through this before, but if not releasing inmates, what would you do to reduce staff-student ratios to safe levels?
"that's an effective way for a TEENAGER to deal with frustration"
What's your point? She spent a YEAR in juvie prison for that "shove." Is that really not enough for you? How can a reasonable person think that's proportional?
Under TYC rules she'd have never gotten out as long as she insisted the aide shoved her first. If the aide really did, that's a big injustice. Holy cow!
Shaquanda's served her time, let her go home and stop hassling the poor kid. She's been through enough.
anonymous at 9:33 - Looks like you have a lot of anger in your life. I sure hope you don't work for TYC!
I also hope and pray the people of Paris avoid unjustly targeting Ms. Cotton with further prosecution.
All children need love and a chance to grow up in a society that offers a real chance for success in life.
Yes, grits...I was being sarcastic. Thank you for recognizing the difference between that and anger :)
To answer your question seriously...there is no other option. Yes, TYC must release some of these kids. What I'm getting at is the way it's being described - the vast majority of these youth have not had their 'sentences extended'. These are youth that failed to complete all release criteria prior to the their (impending) release. Which, sure, to the layman is greek...but it's sort of a wonder to watch some of these kids that can't go a week without shoving someone or telling a JCO to f*ck off or throwing things at a teacher or tearing something up now being characterized as unfairly kept 6 months past their MINIMUM.
Ah well...what do I know.
Anyways, you are absolutely right - the headlines CAN'T be much worse. My point is that when local communities/counties start having to deal w/ some of these kids (and yes, I am assuming they will) when they recidivate within a year's time, I just wondered what kind of MSM attention that will get. My bet is not much.
I give a whit about Ms. Cotton. I DO hope she straightens her life out, b/c it's not going to be easy and the world is not going to treat her any kinder just b/c she's been through such a 'horrible' ordeal.
I do find myself, however, frustrated, flabbergasted, and often appalled at the efforts made by many to write off a teenager's tendency towards addressing situations she doesn't like by resorting to physical aggresiveness as just 'being a kid'. At the risk of sounding decades older than I actually am and resorting to a cliche, I'll go ahead and say it - adults unable or unwilling to hold kids accountable for their actions is the bulk of what the he11 is wrong w/ society today.
Boy, that DOES make me sound like an old codger!
Maybe I'm the only one in the world that is bothered by that, but I doubt it.
So, in sum: My issue is not with Ms. Cotton. Hope she does well. But some kids are a-holes, and their parents helped make them that way. So pray for us all! Heh.
As an aside...many people have said it, and I'll echo - many of us have no other outlet at all, grits, so thank you for providing us this space to 'sound off'. Peace :)
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