[jacketree]

Restorative justice and due process are different things.  Victim impact statements aren't based on adjudicated evidence but emotion.  Are they only used after conviction and before sentencing?  But if you are going to allow character letters in defense prior to sentencing, you had better allow the victim and his/her friends and family to speak as well.


I still think it was a light sentence, but anecdotally I'm not sure County Jail is the country club it has been portrayed by some.  (And obviously six years in County Jail - not sure that ever happens - would be better than six months reduced to three with good behavior.  Funny how that is just assumed for this guy, isn't it?)  During the late 1980s/early 1990s prison building boom in California, the firm I worked for at the time was flush with prison jobs.  I made extensive site visits (no jeans or orange clothing of any kind....no cameras....if there is a riot we ain't saving you....sign here) to a multitude of state penitentiaries.  San Quentin (gorgeous and right out of a movie set with brobdingnagian scary dudes lifting weights a few feet from where we were taking some survey points), Atascadero, Susanville, Coalinga, Pelican Bay, Folsom, Soledad, Avenal, Corcoran (12th circle of Hell), Temecula, and the closest I've ever been to Mexico, south of Otay at the good old Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility.  But the only time I actually feared for my life or worse was at Elmwood Correctional Facility right here in Milpitas, where we were on site to solve the problem of inmates constantly shoving their orange jumpsuits down the can for fun.  Education didn't work; grinders did. And we were also nearly ground if you get my drift.....

[jacketree]

Restorative justice and due process are different things.  Victim impact statements aren't based on adjudicated evidence but emotion.  Are they only used after conviction and before sentencing?  But if you are going to allow character letters in defense prior to sentencing, you had better allow the victim and his/her friends and family to speak as well.


I still think it was a light sentence, but anecdotally I'm not sure County Jail is the country club it has been portrayed by some.  (And obviously six years in County Jail - not sure that ever happens - would be better than six months reduced to three with good behavior.  Funny how that is just assumed for this guy, isn't it?)  During the late 1980s/early 1990s prison building boom in California, the firm I worked for at the time was flush with prison jobs.  I made extensive site visits (no jeans or orange clothing of any kind....no cameras....if there is a riot we ain't saving you....sign here) to a multitude of state penitentiaries.  San Quentin (gorgeous and right out of a movie set with brobdingnagian scary dudes lifting weights a few feet from where we were taking some survey points), Atascadero, Susanville, Coalinga, Pelican Bay, Folsom, Soledad, Avenal, Corcoran (12th circle of Hell), Temecula, and the closest I've ever been to Mexico, south of Otay at the good old Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility.  But the only time I actually feared for my life or worse was at Elmwood Correctional Facility right here in Milpitas, where we were on site to solve the problem of inmates constantly shoving their orange jumpsuits down the can for fun.  Education didn't work; grinders did. And we were also nearly ground if you get my drift.....