Unreal, spending 2 years in solitary confinement for a DUI

I agree the punishment was excessive but how much do you want to bet that DWI/DUI incidents would PLUMMET if this was the established punishment?

Not much I bet. Alcohol and tobacco are the 2 worst drugs and they are freely available to people who cannot mange their addictions.

He was charged with DUI and POSSESSION OF A STOLEN VEHICLE.

Generally speaking, you don't get tossed into solitary confinement from the general population in prison unless you've gone out of your way to be a malignant pain in the ass. If you stay there for two years, you've probably made a real impression on the warden and the prison staff.

Tell me Jim, if your car had been hit the other night in the intersection and members of your family had been critically injured or killed, and it turned out that the driver who hit your vehicle was driving under the influence, would you still feel that this man's punishment was excessive?

Frankly, giving this dirtbag twenty-two million dollars of the taxpayers' money because he didn't like two years in the hole sucks.

What about guys who have been prisoners of war as a result of doing their duty for this country? Shouldn't we give them twenty-two million dollars long before this guy?

I'm sure a survey of the families of the victims of drunk drivers would illuminate this story. And how about a chat with the guards and the warden to find out why he was in the can?

The court has screwed over the people.

Frankly, I think the penalty for DUI, without a stolen vehicle, ought to be around twenty years. And if you don't behave in the general population, you should get to do a lot of it in solitary.

Everett Alvarez spent eleven years in the Hanoi Hilton after they shot his SLUF out from under him, and I'll bet he didn't get twenty-two million dollars.

Cheers!

Rick...

Hardly the same, but nice try on the argument.

From what I hear the guy was a nutjob that they had to keep isolated for his and other people's safety. I really dont see why he won this case.

Because it looked excessive- if what this article is saying is true, he had to extract his own tooth because he was refused proper attention. While he was slipping into madness, they just kept prescribing him more anti-psychotic drugs. Somewhere they must have agreed it was too severe even for a convict- even convicted murders don't necessarily receive that kind of treatment.

It's not to let the guilty off the hook, but the prison system in California is nightmarish- the things that are permitted to happen is on average worse than what you've heard in Abu Ghraib or where they hold non-uniformed combatants overseas. It has got to the point where the US Supreme Court has had to intervene because the concept of human rights are in danger of becoming non-existent.

The problems are 1) 'Tough on crime' political platforms are popular no matter what, even if they don't actually curb crime or are bankrupting the state; 2) an indifferent or ignorant public 3) The powerful prison guard's lobby, which never receives the same scrutiny on its effect on California's institution or economy as other unions.

The California system is all but left to the prison gangs to run, who from the prison's point of view are useful in that they maintain some order over the vast prison population. First time, white, non-violent offenders who don't display aggressiveness serve as the lunchmeat for the other prisoners. If you don't have a crazy reputation already, you are almost well advised to join a prison gang, or you are going to have your clock cleaned. White prisoners are particularly susceptible in that they usually are more divided by race than Latino or Black prisoners, who are expected to join up in a gang. Whites go their own way and often don't arrive into prison carrying that tribal mentality from the outset. But it's white America that usually argues for harsher and longer sentencing, it's the whites really who are just ignoring what they are creating.

The public's attitude is dangerous in that it just feeds more and more prisoners into the system. Someone who goes in say, with a 2 year sentence might become so hardened or dangerous will either have to be released back into the public again even worse probably on the way to become a multiple offender, or will have to stay longer than his original sentence because he will have had to commit more crimes in prison in order to earn respect. Either way, the public pays for it.

Definitely NOT the same, and that's the point.

Cheers!

Rick...

IMO...

DWI first offense should be mandatory license revocation for a year and mandatory hospitalization to dry out.

DWI second offense should be mandatory 5 years in the state penitentiary, no early outs.

DWI third offense should be loss of license for life, and if ever found driving, incarceration for life.

The state pen? You know what kinds of people go there? It's just not equivelant. So a high school kid with 2 DUI's could be put in with hardened psychos who have nothing to lose. He's dead in less than a week. His own cellmate will nightly invite his buddies in for a party on the someone like that, it's exactly what they look for.

County, ok, that's serious enough, but state prison? Someone with a DUI is just not in and of itself the kind of person who belongs there.