Maxes and Mins

Today I got to go to a really cool place. The feds call it the “mail room”. I picked up four boxes for the Marshal’s filled with new investigation folders. This might sound easy, but each box was twenty four pounds. The deputies were very impressed that I could carry them all. After that unpaided manual labor (it is almost like I’m in prison!) I watched some courts.

Felons can get six months

for smoking this

                The first case, a resentencing, was actually kind of heartwarming. The prison had originally been sentenced to fifteen years for felony gun possession, he had already served over eleven years. The federal maximum sentence for felony gun possession was recently changed to ten years, so they released the prisoner on time served.

Felons can get ten years

for having this

                Then I watched a sentencing which was not so pleasant. The criminal was a bank robber who was free on supervised release (which is basically parole). The man had been out of prisoner for two years already; his supervised release was for three years. He broke the terms of his release in six ways. He tested positive for marijuana, didn’t pay his restitution or court fees, got a job outside of the district he legally had to stay in, didn’t inform his parole officer of change of address, etc. He apologized to the court, and asked the judge to not send him to prison since he has a two month old baby. The judge was furious. She roasted him saying she gave him below the usual sentence for the bank robbery and didn’t send him back to prison when he had previously tested positive for marijuana. He started crying as did the mother of his child who was in the back of the courtroom. Then the judge sentenced him to the maximum six months.