tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post9189155032795800882..comments2024-03-15T05:45:01.402-05:00Comments on Grits for Breakfast: Thursday morning roundupGritsforbreakfasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10152152869466958902noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-74923913156420385172010-10-06T22:58:42.903-05:002010-10-06T22:58:42.903-05:00One cannot text and drive in our free country OR E...One cannot text and drive in our free country OR ELSE... has anyone taken a good look inside the police cruisers lately? full computers and other gadgetry which is used while parked during a routine search and seiz... oops, traffic stop.... HOWEVER.. and a big however... they are used to check out that license plate of yours and that is done while in motion? it's not any different than the texting issue and neither is safe but one gets in deep kaka while the other gets to say it's part of the job.... <br /><br />We are getting so frickin' stupid as a society in record time...hell, in DOG YEARSAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-33594709553320728662010-10-02T08:18:54.863-05:002010-10-02T08:18:54.863-05:00The cost of probation is not the only thing that a...The cost of probation is not the only thing that a defendant considers. It is also the many conditions judges impose the sometimes wierd decisions by a judge.<br /><br />On 9-30-10 Bexar County Drug Court Judge Ernie Glenn surprised a lot of people in his court room. He ordered a Probation Officer to take a defendant to the defendant's home and to destroy drugs and drug paraphernalia in the defendant's home. This probably made the defendant wonder what he got himself into. <br /><br />Probation Officers are simply not trained to enter a home where drugs are known to be stored. Police do this with many armed officers and a lot of backup.<br /><br />To make things worse probation administration approved of the plan for a probation officer to destroy the drugs.<br /><br />Why would the judge and probation administration place an officer in physical danger and in danger of breaking the law?<br /><br />The probationer is probably rethinking his choice to be placed on probation. But I am sure he is delighted he was not charged with another felony for drug possession or even worse drug sales.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-26369436956212639712010-10-01T13:50:57.865-05:002010-10-01T13:50:57.865-05:00The tyc has been drugging kids verifiably since 19...The tyc has been drugging kids verifiably since 1948. My Gatesville blog has me communicating with alumni as far back as then.<br />It was easy during my time, you went and told a meshugana guy named Dr Smith, who seem to wear his bifocals upside down, your were anxious and next thing you knew you were on the medication wagon four times a day for melireal. Dorm man would call medication for the retardation and we would line up go to the yard then they would trot us up to the infirmary.<br />I was at tyc when they moved from hand cuffing to the wall and beating us to tying us down with leather straps to a bunk that had been outfitted with ply board in lieu of the springs. They had a more difficult time beating us while strapped to the ply board bead. Today’s restraint chair looks pretty harmless. On the other hand I would prefer the ass whopping from several red necks while hanging on the wall than having to listen to some slaves off spring wagging their tong at me for hours on end. Verbal abuse is so much more damaging than physical abuse. I was there when tyc had to transition into that as well.<br />Sheldon tyc#47333Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-42278413107514218132010-10-01T08:05:22.468-05:002010-10-01T08:05:22.468-05:00Prison Doc, I agree, but I simply had work for pay...Prison Doc, I agree, but I simply had work for paying clients and time was the factor. I may revisit the topic, but until then, the <a href="http://www.youthtoday.org/view_article.cfm?article_id=4344" rel="nofollow">Youth Today article</a> was quite extensive and contains a significant section on Texas, so I strongly encourage everyone to read the whole thing. Here's a money quote from the article for those who didn't click through:<br /><br />“Fifty years ago, we were tying kids up with leather straps, but now that offends people, so instead we drug them,” says Robert Jacobs, a former Florida psychologist and lawyer who now practices psychology in Australia. “We cover it up with some justification that there is some medical reason, which there is not.”<br /><br />FWIW, I didn't know Youth Today before I started covering juvie stuff on Grits, and I still admittedly don't read the publication regularly, but much of what I see from them is well-done, often based on mostly primary sources where it's clear the reporter did their own research (I despise faux "balanced" he-said, she-said news coverage), and they take on hard topics like this one that I don't see frequently covered elsewhere.Gritsforbreakfasthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10152152869466958902noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-41008905174013605102010-09-30T21:26:39.428-05:002010-09-30T21:26:39.428-05:00No matter what crime these youth have committed, i...No matter what crime these youth have committed, it is not right to have them in an institution acting like zombies. They are bullied, provoked into fights and treated inhumanely while being overdosed. I don't like working around youth under these tragic conditions.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-86052917960025634002010-09-30T21:23:17.130-05:002010-09-30T21:23:17.130-05:00Great smorgasbord of articles Grits but sorry you ...Great smorgasbord of articles Grits but sorry you couldn't give more attention to the Drugged Youths issue. I think this is one of the major problems in criminal justice...and in communities too. Inaccurate diagnoses, inappropriate and excessive prescribing, shoddy psychiatry all work together to keep people with substance abuse problems all drugged up while in jail as well as in the community before they get arrested or rearrested. People who are taking psychoactive drugs incorrectly or unnecessarily might as well be using the street drugs themselves--it is still drug abuse!Prison Dochttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03651611135066437902noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-26215123624934459412010-09-30T14:21:14.139-05:002010-09-30T14:21:14.139-05:00When clients used to tell me they'll take the ...When clients used to tell me they'll take the jail time instead of probation I looked at them kinda fish-eyed and thought to myself "eww, you're really scummy." Not any more. In many cases it's become the completely rational thing to do. Probation has become the you-gotta-be-kidding-me choice....a year or more of fees and classes and conditions and peeing-in-the-cup and appointments and what-not, versus two-or-three-long-weekends-and-I-can-be-done-with-this-s--t....<br /><br />One caveat, at least here in Travis County, if you do your time on the weekends the sheriff's website will show you as a current inmate 7 days a week until your time is served. I had one client who had difficulty finding a job because of this: a potential employer would do a background check and it would show that the guy was a current TCJ inmate. I'm surprised nobody called the cops on him. "Yes, 9-1-1? I've got a guy here applying for a job and it says here he's supposed to be in jail...."Don Dicksonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04216181226322913663noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-55834815232147849332010-09-30T12:32:10.255-05:002010-09-30T12:32:10.255-05:00I recall the author of "Raped by The State&qu...I recall the author of "Raped by The State" documenting how youth were in a stupor much of their time in school and on their dorms. There was a sense of sadness and shame that so many youth were moving about in a trance, initiated by the state, to provide for 'better control'.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com