News from the Jails:
(1) A judge in NY is trying to take car of a massive backlog of habeus cases. He even volunteered for the job. Must be some sort of masochist. the article cites four cases wherein an attorney wrote the motion but "jailhouse lawyers" sit and manufacture these motions day in and day out (when they're not doing 1983 motions). On some - very rare - occasions these make sense and might actually point toward a valid legal point (Gideon). More often pro se motions are ramblings by a man who has nothing better to do during his years in prison, written in broken English, and consisting of little more than claims that (a) my lawyer is an incompetent boob and (2) the prosecutor and his witnesses lied about me.1
(2) The NYTimes is upset with the fact that more people are going to jail for longer periods of time in a period when crime is on the decline (can you say cause and effect boys and girls? I knew you could). Likewise, the Tennessean tells us that the University of Tennessee is going to see less funding because so many people are going to prison (not dang likely, they'll stop feeding the prisoners before they stop funding UT).
(3) On the other hand, if you really want to save money while you wharehouse your inmates you could send them to Virginia:
Virginia prisons already house more than 1,000 out-of-state prisoners [They come from Connecticut,] Vermont, New Mexico, Hawaii and the Virgin IslandsNew Mexico? Hawaii? It must be as expensive as all get out to store people on that island if they are shipping them this far away.
1 To my knowledge, and by the Grace of God, no one has yet habeused me. However, a number of clients have written pro se motions to the judge or letters which follow this pattern (usually it's the drop dead guilty guy who is upset that I couldn't exclude his pants which are covered in paint from the dye pack or keep the three nuns who saw him run out of the bank from testifying).
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