It's so EXPENSIVE Tim Brown 9/23 '14

So today's trial did not happen.  Trials get continued for so many technical, mundane, not-worth-explaining reasons...  The stars really have to align for a trial to happen in Boston.  Meanwhile, the cops show up & get their union-negotiated four hours of overtime ($75-100/hr?  I'm guessing).  Everyone who runs the courthouse gets paid.  I get paid. So does the judge.  Maybe we'll have a trial in January.  It will be hard for the government to prove my client did the rinky-dink druggy thing of which he is accused.  If we win it will have been a waste of time and money--a windfall for the police witnesses who will rake it in without regard to the outcome.  If I am wrong and my client is convicted, he'll get a disproportionate two-or-so years in county prison (~$50K/year).  Waste, waste, waste....

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9/23 '14 3 Comments
Yep, talk about the number of people in prison for the most victimless of drug crimes and the waste shoots up into the stratosphere.

Um, and there's an image for you.
Thomas Boutell
Yeah, there was some momentum behind the notion that--without regard to humane angles--this shit need not be bankrupting state budgets. There have been some modest curbs to the least sensible sentencing laws, but the trend has stalled. The prison populations are rising again (along with the stock prices of prison companies).

Unrelated question for Tom: are opw comments unlimited? loophole... 8-)
Tim Brown
Yep, comments are unlimited (; Hopefully the rule for posts, and only one email notification a day (at most), sets a good general tone of not obsessively checking the site all day. We'll see.
Thomas Boutell