A Drug Court's Legalized Slavery

[patric]

(Oklahoma Judge Thomas) Landrith started his own rehab work camp where defendants must work full time for free at a local Coca-Cola bottling plant and other companies, under threat of prison if they don't comply. They are required to say they're unemployed and turn over their food stamps to the program, which state regulators say is fraud. And on their days off, some worked for free mowing Landrith's lawn and doing yard work around his property.

The involvement of one of Oklahoma's most celebrated judges exposes just how pervasive this type of rehab model has become, implicating major corporations, powerful politicians and even those whose job is to uphold the law.
Many defendants sent to SOAR have not yet been convicted of crimes, making their forced labor a potential violation of the 13th Amendment ban on slavery and involuntary servitude.

https://www.revealnews.org/article/inside-a-judges-rehab-unpaid-work-at-a-local-coca-cola-plant/


Cody Theriac thought he'd caught a break when a drug court judge in Tulsa decided to give him another chance at rehab instead of sending him to prison.
But when Theriac arrived at SOAR, his first stop wasn't to a drug and alcohol counselor. It was to the local food stamp office in Ada.

[Conan71]

(Oklahoma Judge Thomas) Landrith started his own rehab work camp where defendants must work full time for free at a local Coca-Cola bottling plant and other companies, under threat of prison if they don't comply. They are required to say they're unemployed and turn over their food stamps to the program, which state regulators say is fraud. And on their days off, some worked for free mowing Landrith's lawn and doing yard work around his property.

The involvement of one of Oklahoma's most celebrated judges exposes just how pervasive this type of rehab model has become, implicating major corporations, powerful politicians and even those whose job is to uphold the law.
Many defendants sent to SOAR have not yet been convicted of crimes, making their forced labor a potential violation of the 13th Amendment ban on slavery and involuntary servitude.

https://www.revealnews.org/article/inside-a-judges-rehab-unpaid-work-at-a-local-coca-cola-plant/


Cody Theriac thought he'd caught a break when a drug court judge in Tulsa decided to give him another chance at rehab instead of sending him to prison.
But when Theriac arrived at SOAR, his first stop wasn't to a drug and alcohol counselor. It was to the local food stamp office in Ada.

It's hard to know if some of these people really were in a situation of involuntary servitude or if there's a few ungrateful namby-pamby's who have no idea that prison would be worse.  Anecdotally, there are successes from these diversion programs, though I can't say I agree 100% with how they are run.

[patric]

It's hard to know if some of these people really were in a situation of involuntary servitude or if there's a few ungrateful namby-pamby's who have no idea that prison would be worse.  Anecdotally, there are successes from these diversion programs, though I can't say I agree 100% with how they are run.

Just recently the prison system handed the legislature a $1.5 Billion bill for their "tough-on-crime" posturing, knowing darn well we are already broke.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/opinion/editorials/tulsa-world-editorial-the-state-s-expensive-justice-tastes-are/article_90f810f8-236c-5bcf-88f4-c14a1f79af92.html

It only make sense that there should be programs that address non-violent offenders and those whose crime stem from mental illnesses, but there is no good reason the trade-off has to be the state committing tax fraud, workers comp fraud, food stamp fraud, etc. 

[TeeDub]

In other news...

More than 60 grams of meth found during cell search at Oklahoma prison

"Great job getting this out of the yard, COs!" officials said on Twitter.
http://kfor.com/2018/04/21/more-than-60-grams-of-meth-found-during-cell-search-at-oklahoma-prison/?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark

If they did a "great job" wouldn't it have not made it inside the prison?

[patric]

In other news...

More than 60 grams of meth found during cell search at Oklahoma prison

"Great job getting this out of the yard, COs!" officials said on Twitter.
http://kfor.com/2018/04/21/more-than-60-grams-of-meth-found-during-cell-search-at-oklahoma-prison/?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark

If they did a "great job" wouldn't it have not made it inside the prison?

Winner.

The latest fad is to blame smuggling on drones, using "it must have been" as sole evidence.