JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG

WELCOME TO THE OFFICIAL RICHARD E GERSTEIN JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG. THIS BLOG IS DEDICATED TO JUSTICE BUILDING RUMOR, HUMOR, AND A DISCUSSION ABOUT AND BETWEEN THE JUDGES, LAWYERS AND THE DEDICATED SUPPORT STAFF, CLERKS, COURT REPORTERS, AND CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS WHO LABOR IN THE WORLD OF MIAMI'S CRIMINAL JUSTICE. POST YOUR COMMENTS, OR SEND RUMPOLE A PRIVATE EMAIL AT HOWARDROARK21@GMAIL.COM. Winner of the prestigious Cushing Left Anterior Descending Artery Award.

Monday, October 23, 2023

EDLDERLY AND IN PRISON

 When the Covid19 pandemic broke and we all became experts on federal compassionate release motions, Rumpole for one was surprised to learn that there is no equivalent motion in Florida. In other words, Florida truly locks you up and throws away the key and wants its prisoners to rot in jail and makes sure no  pinko-commie-liberal-before DeSantis Drone Judges- can do something humane like allowing a person to die with dignity surrounded by their family.  (And yes we know you will all scream that the prisoner didn't let a person die with their loved ones, and we respond an eye-for-an-eye leaves everyone blind).  But no worry for DeSantis Drones, they won't even get the chance to show their Federalist Chops by denying compassionate release to some 80 year old man who went to prison as a 20 year old for robbing twenty bucks from a 7-11 back in the day when the stores really opened from 7 am to 11pm. 

Anyway, here's a good NY Times Article on the subject. 

Some snippets: 

Research shows that most people age out of criminal conduct. Moreover, the Department of Justice asserts that the risk of elderly people reoffending after release is minimal. Yet decades of tough-on-crime sentencing and increasingly rigid release policies have left many to grow old in a system that was not designed to accommodate them. The cost is high, for both the residents and the public at large.


Cleveland Lindley, 53, has served 28 years. He was sentenced to 105 years at age 25 for robbing a McDonald’s, his third strike under California's infamous three strike law. 


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

They should change that law

Anonymous said...


We ought to be clear about what youre proposing. Back whenever, using our democratic system, Floridians elected legislators and judges to write and enforce criminal laws that best represented the interests of Floridians. We presume, and Biden tells us, that US elections are fair and trustworthy.

So voters *chose* legislators who wrote into law criminal penalties, and voters *chose* judges who exercised whatever legal discretion afforded to them to enact those penalties.

But now we have more compassionate hearts than those voters, and ought to be able to undo their decisions. Fair enough, glad to know we are better than our parents and grandparents.

Some candidate for FL legislature should run on this platform. "Vote for me, and I will write a law allowing judges to release serious criminals from prison at their personal discretion." That pol would have Rump's vote.

Why do you think its not happening? Seems like a massively popular position

Anonymous said...

Ronny Scott Cooper, age 61, Inmate #5200 in the Marion County Jail, needs competent representation. Last week he told me the jail took his prosthetic leg and put it in property rather than fix it. Ronny had his leg amputated above the knee when he was 19 years-old. Been held almost five years in pretrial detention. He is facing F1Life for armed hijacking. No one was injured, the gun was an airsoft, not a firearm. Ronny says he was released too early from a psychiatric hospital. His trial ended in a hung jury. Years ago Dr. Harry Krop, the state’s psychologist, recommended release with time served, and enrollment in a dual diagnosis program. Mr. Cooper is a musician from Las Vegas, Nevada who plays the guitar. He would like to see his 86 year-old mother again before she dies. The ACLU did not respond to my email Friday for counsel. Thank you.

https://www.scribd.com/document/679877801/Email-to-ACLU-Please-Represent-Ronny-Scott-Cooper

Anonymous said...

@11:44am, bro, que tipo mas pesado eres.

This guy is an example of why middle aged men don't have friends.

Anonymous said...

Hey! WTF. I have a friend and he doesn’t at all mind if I get pissed and yell at him. s/middleish aged man