Carrol Cox wrote:
> I have lost the original document, but two years ago I read an account by
> an attorney in the Cook County Public Defender's Office of the whole
> context of these street sweeps.
>
> Step 1. The Police sweep a given area, arresting everyone on the street at
> that time as a drug offender.
>
> Step 2. They are then taken to County Jail, where they are held to appear
> before Night Court. (So they will have had a good taste of what time in
> Cook County Jail is like.
>
> Step 3. They are then taken to Night Court, where they are offered two
> options:
>
> 3a. They can plead innocent, in which case they will have to post
> bail (which very few can), with trial set for 6 months or so in the
> future.
>
> 3b. They can plead guilty to a lesser charge, they will be given
> probation, and can go home at once.
>
> The vast majority choose to go home.
>
> Step 4. Any time during that year of probation they are picked up for
> anything, anything whatsoever. They have therefore violated probation.
> They therefore receive an immediate prison sentence, no court trial
> needed.
>
> For Whom the Bell Tolls
>
> Carrol Cox
-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 916-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu