"Shaquanda may be released soon!"
[from the Chicago Tribune]
The sentences of many of the 4,700 delinquent youths now being held in Texas' juvenile prisons might have been arbitrarily and unfairly extended by prison authorities and thousands could be freed in a matter of weeks as part of a sweeping overhaul of the scandal-plagued juvenile system, state officials say. Jay Kimbrough, a special master appointed by Texas Gov. Rick Perry to investigate the system after allegations surfaced that some prison officials were coercing imprisoned youths for sex, said he would assemble a committee to review the sentence of every youth in the system.
The goal, Kimbrough said, is to release any youth whose sentence was improperly extended without justification or in retaliation for filing complaints. In his initial review of sentences, Kimbrough said, he had found many questionable extensions, adding that some experts estimate that more 60 percent of the state's youthful inmates might be languishing under wrongful detention.
Among the leading candidates for early release is Shaquanda Cotton, a 14-year-old black girl from the small east Texas town of Paris, who was sent to prison for up to 7 years for shoving a hall monitor at her high school while other young white offenders convicted of more serious crimes received probation in the town's courts....
On a grimmer note, however:
Shaquanda's father dies
I spoke to Paris, Texas, civil rights activist, Mrs. Brenda Cherry tonight, and she informed me Shaquanda’s father died approximately a week ago in Oklahoma.
The funeral was this past Saturday.
Mrs. Creola Cotton did not tell Shaquanda of her father’s death until today. She delayed breaking the news to her until she could do it in person, rather than by phone.
According to Mrs. Cherry, Shaquanda took her father’s death quite hard.
Shaquanda has received a blizzard of cards and her family sends their thanks.
God love her. Yep: there're those family values in action all right. stick the kid to languish away from her parents, and her father DIES and she misses the funeral, without having seen him or even known it was happening. I'm sure that'll learn her...whatever it was she was supposed to be learning. for FUCK'S sake.
6 comments:
family values are only for white people, didn't you realize?!
I really really hope she gets out and is able to get back to a normal life soon.
family values are only for white people, didn't you realize?!
No no, you misunderstand, black people don't believe in the family unit like white people do - that's why they're all single welfare hoochie mamas in their "self selected" segregated communities.
I really really really hope none of them kill themselves before they can be released.
Am I the only one who was noticed that bit about the contraband in Shaquanda's room? I think I'm going to have to change my mind about her. After all, what would a good child want with an extra pair of socks?
This story just gets more and more fucked up at every single turn. I just wish someone would try to say that this girl had any chance of getting out before the seven years were up if it had not been for the attention called to the case over the past few weeks. I will seriously unleash The Crazy on them. I swear, I will.
*tweak*
Uh...Texas and I have at this point what I would refer to as a "grudge match." I really hope that this works out for her...
Yep, that's the best way to inculcate family values, put teenagers in prison with a whole bunch of other, much tougher kids as their primary source of influence, then don't even let them see their folks when there'a a fucking death in the family. That'll straighten those kids out!
Every time you wonder if there's any way conservatives in this country could get things and more ass-backwards than they already have you realise that the answer is yes. And you really regret asking.
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