In the federal system, reported USA Today ("
Federal prisoners use snitching for personal gain, " Dec. 14), "Snitching has become so commonplace that in the past five years at least
48,895 federal convicts — one of every eight — had their prison
sentences reduced in exchange for helping government investigators, a
USA TODAY examination of hundreds of thousands of court cases found. The
deals can chop a decade or more off of their sentences." See an
interactive map detailing the number of deals federal prosecutors cut with informants by federal district from 2006 to 2011. Here's a remarkable excerpt from the story:
Every year for the past decade, 11% or more of the people
convicted of a federal crime got a shorter sentence because they
provided "substantial assistance" to investigators, a USA TODAY
examination of federal sentencing data shows. That figure almost
certainly understates the extent to which defendants cooperate because
some get breaks that aren't reflected in court records and others only
pass on information that the government doesn't find useful.
In return, prisoners offer up names and addresses of drug dealers.
They wear recording devices or let police listen to their phone calls.
They introduce undercover agents to their contacts inside crime
organizations.
That kind of help has become indispensable
for law enforcement. The Drug Enforcement Administration told the
Justice Department's inspector general in 2005 that it "could not
effectively enforce the controlled-substances laws of the United States"
without its confidential sources.
Cooperation is
especially common when drugs are involved. Nationwide, at least a
quarter of the people sent to federal prison in drug-trafficking cases
over the past five years successfully traded information for a shorter
sentence
See related Grits posts:
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6 comments:
But if that helps the Government get more bad guys, is there really a problem considering Fed inmates don't get parole?
The problem is the classic case: Woman is asked by her man to take him to see a friend. He goes in and buys drugs, without her knowledge. They get stopped and both are arrested. He can rat out the dealer; she cannot. He gets a short sentence; she does not. When she gets out of prison, her children are gone and her rights have been terminated.
Snitching can be horribly abused. See the Colomb case in Louisiana where people were convicted on snitch testimony, but the convictions finally overturned.
Kill a snitch and the cop that worked with him, is the the American way!
The snitch tries to rat out his partner in crime. I say no way!
Arce said...
The problem is the classic case: Woman is asked by her man to take him to see a friend. He goes in and buys drugs, without her knowledge. They get stopped and both are arrested. He can rat out the dealer; she cannot. He gets a short sentence; she does not. When she gets out of prison, her children are gone and her rights have been terminated.
You hit the nail on the head for the Texas law of parties. This makes up the most of women in the Texas prison system today. When I hear people come on here and talk about abuses these women and refer to them as murders and rapists is unreal. These are the women who are abused everyday in the Gatesville Gulags. There are so many women in these Gatesville Gulags being abused by perverted officers in Gatesville.
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