Man Was Sentenced to Die in Prison for Shoplifting a $159 Jacket: This Happens More Than You Think

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/man-was-sentenced-die-prison-shoplifting-159-jacket-happens-more-you-think



At about 12.40pm on 2 January 1996, Timothy Jackson took a jacket from the Maison Blanche department store in New Orleans, draped it over his arm, and walked out of the store without paying for it. When he was accosted by a security guard, Jackson said: “I just needed another jacket, man.”

A few months later Jackson was convicted of shoplifting and sent to Angola prison in Louisiana. That was 16 years ago. Today he is still incarcerated in Angola, and will stay there for the rest of his natural life having been condemned to die in jail. All for the theft of a jacket, worth $159.

Jackson, 53, is one of 3,281 prisoners in America serving life sentences with no chance of parole for non-violent crimes. Some, like him, were given the most extreme punishment short of execution for shoplifting; one was condemned to die in prison for siphoning petrol from a truck; another for stealing tools from a tool shed; yet another for attempting to cash a stolen cheque.

“It has been very hard for me,” Jackson wrote to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) as part of its new report on life without parole for non-violent offenders. “I know that for my crime I had to do some time, but a life sentence for a jacket value at $159. I have met people here whose crimes are a lot badder with way less time.”

[liberal N proud]

1. Mandatory sentence? - WTF?

The article says:

Louisiana, where both Washington and Jackson are held, is one of nine states where prisoners are serving life without parole sentences for non-violent offences (other states with high numbers are Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Oklahoma and South Carolina). An overwhelming proportion of those sentences – as many as 98% in Louisiana – were mandatory: in other words judges had no discretion but to impose the swingeing penalties.

I knew some southern states had some extreme laws but mandatory life for petty theft is beyond extreme.

[xchrom]

3. +1

[ET Awful]

5. It's not just the south.

The same thing has happened in California under three strikes laws.

This case from 1995 is a prime example: http://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/05/us/25-years-for-a-slice-of-pizza.html

[cascadiance]

16. There is a reason that shoplifting and crimes like this are classified as felonies...

... which is what causes problems like three strikes laws in California and other states.

Many people are lead in their understanding of rationale for these laws by those that create three strikes laws that felonies are only violent crimes and therefore deserve to be the criteria that creates three strikes to lead to lifetime in prison, etc. It varies a little by state, but it has everything to do with the ability on whether a citizen can make a citizen's arrest and hold someone for a crime they witness only if the crime they witness is a felony.

In many states citizens can't arrest someone else for a crime like speeding, parking tickets, etc. because they are all classified as misdemeanors. You have to be a police officer or working as a citizen under direction of a police officer on the scene to make an arrest and hold someone who doesn't want to be arrested.

Therefore many states classify crimes like shoplifting as felonies, not misdemeanors, not because they are violent crimes, but so that "store detectives", or other civilians can make a citizen's arrest and hold someone for police custody later if they catch shoplifting in a store. Otherwise the most they could do is call the cops and hope that the thief is still on the scene when the cops arrive.

I know this because at one time in my young life I worked as a store detective briefly, and this basic fact was made clearly to us, and therefore also made clear which criminal acts we could arrest people for and which we couldn't. Otherwise those arrested could sue for false arrest on things like us holding someone for parking illegally, etc.

This is why laws like three strikes need to be written very carefully to not count things like shoplifting a candy bar as a "strike" compared to armed robbery or something like that which arguably should be on that list. That or state laws needs to have a different category besides misdemeanors and felonies that allows for people to be arrested with citizen's arrests, but not be considered in the same category as other felony crimes.

Too many people don't understand this nuance, which is why you get problematic laws like three strikes passed in California, which create this problem for their justice system, especially if there are mandatory verdict/sentencing restrictions that don't allow for thoughtful judges to make sure that non-violent crimes don't count towards life sentences.

[BlueJazz]

19. Great informative post ! Thanks !

Clears up a few things very well.

[Pab Sungenis]

21. Or we need to rewrite the "citizen's arrest" laws

to accommodate shoplifting.

[phantom power]

28. the private prison industrial complex also benefits plenty from laws like this

which makes me wonder, as with drug possession laws, how much the for-profit prison industry influences our laws, to keep themselves profitable.

[KamaAina]

31. NY state has an "E felony"

which is less serious than other felonies.

[myrna minx]

2. What kind of system is this? A very corrupt and unjust one.

[Blue_Tires]

46. +1

[B Calm]

4. That's so wrong!

Imagining what sentence he would of got if he had a little weed in his pocket when he was arrested, probably death!

[tecelote]

6. All in the name of PROFIT

This has nothing to do with justice.

Privatized prisons are simply wrong.

[TBF]

13. It's not just privatized prisons ...

it's privatized everything. When property is valued more than people you really have to take a long hard look at yourself and this system and say "why?".

[subterranean]

27. Angola is not privatized.

It is a state-run prison farm.

[Ikonoklast]

32. Less than 4% of all convicts in this nation are incarcerated in a privately held for-profit prison.

The vast majority of all prisons are publicly held and funded by taxpayers.

[Recursion]

40. Since when is Angola a privatized prison?

It's a classic example of the institutionalized state-run abuse that makes privatized prisons attractive to some legislators.

[fasttense]

7. OK, so what corporation is making big bucks off this prison?

You know there has to be big money being made off of this prison or it wouldn't even be in existence.

[Recursion]

39. It's state-run and state-operated

Not everything is a corporation's fault.

[AngryAmish]

44. Everyone in the system likes these laws

Voters vote for "get tough on crime" legislators, prosecutors, etc.

Rich folks who contract with the state (repubs) like these laws, more people in jail, more contracts.

State employee unions (dems) like these laws since it means more jobs, higher pay etc.

We are doing this to ourselves - or more accurately, to black people. But everyone's taxes are higher.

These laws are cancer.

[seveneyes]

8. Where is the rest of his story?

Of course it is unjust and ridiculous to serve life or even 15 years for non violent offenses. I find it hard to believe this was his only major crime. A google search on him only turned up "habitual offender", so there is no clue as to what mitigated this particular sentence. There has to be a lot more to this story, and why was it not added?

[pipoman]

9. Yep

Avid civil libertarian here... three strikes ...What were the other 2? Mandatory Sentencing and zero tolerance should he abandoned immediately ..

[ieoeja]

25. Those 3-Strike laws are the exact sort of laws that led to the American Revolution.

The Declaration of Independance mentions taxes once, but only as part of a complaint about no representatives in the House of Commons. Conversely, it references draconian law enforcement many times.

In some ways we have devolved as a nation.

[pipoman]

29. I have somewhat mixed feelings about that..

On one hand if someone commits the same violent offense over and over there should be a way to shut that down permanently. OTOH if someone has a series of non violent convictions I don't believe it is right to permanently remove them. OTOH the paralell has been drawn between the adoption of 3 strike laws and declining crime stats nationally. .it is a dilemma. .

[ieoeja]

45. Most career criminals quit in their 30s. The best remedy for speeding that up was rehabilitation.

But we almost entirely eliminated forced rehabilitation programs in the 1980s.

Crime has been steadily dropping since the mid '70s. Well before the first 3-Strike law in California.

And I don't care if the 3-Strike laws are effective. I bet summary executions would be even more effective. It is still wrong.

FYI: that first 3-Strike law, by the way, was not aimed at repeat offenders. Everyone (except the authors) thought it was. But the way it was written a first time offender was eligible for sentencing if they had 3 qualifying violations. The NRA, whose lawyers wrote the law (ALEC is not an original concept), successfully sued the state of California for their failure to apply the 3-Strike law to a first time offender.

I believe the laws have been corrected to at least get rid of that nonsense. But they are still draconian and unnecessary.

[malaise]

10. Meanwhile the bankers walk the street and continue robbing

everyone in their paths.
Meanwhile a 45 year old coach gets one year in prison for raping an unconscious 16 year old. Life is a bitch when you're black.

[cantbeserious]

11. All The While The Corporations Proifit From His Incarceration

eom

[Ikonoklast]

33. Angola is owned by the state of Louisiana.

The vast majority of all prisons in this nation are *not* privately held by for-profit corporations, they are owned by the various political jurisdictions they fall under.

The vast majority of all prisons in this nation are owned, funded, and run by the taxpayers.

[cantbeserious]

47. Then Why Is Prison Enterprises Part Of The Picture

eom

[Madmiddle]

12. Land of the free? Home of the brave?

That makes me wanna puke. This country is quickly become the worse country on the planet.

[dotymed]

23. Undoubtedly.

At a recent Veterans day celebration they were playing the "America is the BEST" songs and everyone was doing their
patriotism weeping. It made me sick.

I am a patriot but to say "where at least I know I'm free", is Unpatriotic.

[AAO]

14. What percentage of the 3281 prisoners are white?

[marble falls]

15. Need we ask. I bet its at most 20%.

[Brigid]

34. You're gonna love this:

According to Wikipedia, Angola is the largest prison in the country, with 5,100 inmates. 99% are black. That's right -- 99%. And 71% are serving life sentences. That's right -- 71%.

[AAO]

41. I think we need a jailbreak. That is about what I'd imagined, though. Ruining peoples lives because

they have dark skin. Things haven't changed much in the 21st century.

[TorchTheWitch]

17. meanwhile a rapist coach that served

alcohol to his players at a party he hosted and got a teenager so drunk she passed out and he raped her but only got a ONE YEAR prison sentence, and the fucking media continually describes the rape as "had sex with".

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

[Gormy Cuss]

24. +1 n/t

[marmar]

18. k/r

[ConcernedCanuk]

20. This, and the fact minor offences can lead to life imprisonment in the USA

.
.
.

is all over the news outlets today.

I read online news from China, Japan, India, Russia, UK, Canada, USA, Venezuela and so on -

USA is getting slammed WorldWide for this inhumane treatment of it's own citizens.

About time . . . .

CC

[packman]

22. Jean Valjean - for a loaf of bread

Victor Hugo a few decades back got it right. If you're poor the law has a whole different perspective of you and your circumstances.
Time to review the Three-strike, Four-strike, and drug laws and empty out some cells. But, the criminal justice system is now, for most part, a privatized system whose corporate bosses demand that cells be filled and quotas met to meet their bottom line of profits. States are making unholy pacts with companies to handle their prisons and those companies are telling states that they must have a certain amount of investment (prisoners) to be viable and the states are accommodating them by supplying bodies to fill those cells.

[gopiscrap]

26. this is disgusting

First off, had this man been white a) he would have been sentenced to 6 months and b) he wouldn't have been sent to that hell hole called Angola. We need a constitutional amendment that doesn't allow a life sentence or a de facto life sentence for any non violent crime short of racketeering or treason.

[alcibiades_mystery]

30. "You have to realize / What is a form of slavery organized / under a swarm of devils..."

"Straight up/ Word 'em up on the level."

Make no mistake: this is where the so-called "victim's rights" and "tough on crime" movements were headed all along. Black folks to The Farm.

3200+? There is no greater issue in criminal justice/ civil rights than the absolutely horrific use of the prison system in this country. It is political terrorism of the first order, attacking subjugated populations in a determined and intentional way. No parole for $159 jacket. 80 years for an armed robbery, never mind that the perpetrators are dirt poor and 17. Get all the scary young black thugs to the damn warehouses. or shoot them dead in the street. This is America today. In some ways, it's even worse than the old racisms. Insidious, devious, evil. The sentencing laws "won" by the "victims right" and "tough on crime" movements are fucking profoundly EVIL.

[Chuck Smythe]

35. Jail for shoplifters is bullshit.

The sentence for convicted shoplifters should be to stand outside the store for 8 hours, from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M, holding a sign that says, "I am a convicted shoplifter. I shoplifted from (name of store)."

They would get a 10 minute bathroom break each hour, and a 30 minute break for lunch.

For a non-violent crime such as shoplifting, public shaming works much better than prison. And it's a lot less costly to the taxpayers.

[City Lights]

36. And the bankers and rapists walk freely.

Fuck this shit!

[avaistheone1]

37. And so do George W. Bush, Cheney and Condi Rice.

[City Lights]

42. Silly me for forgetting America's War Criminals!

Let's not forget Rummy!

[Chuck Smythe]

38. Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank.

Give a man a bank, and he can rob the entire world!

[City Lights]

43. Hiya, Chuck Smythe!

Welcome to DU!

Great quote!

[Nine]

48. kick. (nt)