-This is a breakdown of the experience most people will go through when facing the legal system, but your chances at a fair experience if you are black depend on the majority of these officials being colorblind...not very good odds unfortunately. -
6 - Judge - Your judge will do everything possible to pretend that they are being fair, but in the end even if they do not realize it, the institutional racism that has been part of this country's existence from the very beginning of its foundation will win more often than not. Your judge will say things like, "I wish I could give you less time but," or "The message must be sent that..." or "I can tell you are remorseful but," and it means absolutely nothing, it is just a way for them to psychologically feel good about them sending your ass to prison when perhaps it is not always necessary. You don't have to believe anything that I am telling you by the way, but Jeff Bezos (the guy we have all made even richer during this pandemic) owns a newspaper that wrote the following:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/11/16/black-men-sentenced-to-more-time-for-committing-the-exact-same-crime-as-a-white-person-study-finds/
7 - The Prison Officers/Staff - First of all, most prisons are built in rural areas, which means already that these small towns probably do not have a diversity office manager, what the hell for? This lack of inequality within the town itself means that the majority black prisoners that are coming into any given rural prison sadly will be the only experience of diversity that many prison guards will have. Let's face it, most prisoners are not model citizens despite of race, so basically you are giving a potentially racist guard all the justification he needs to treat you like complete shit if you're black. Sadly, if the guard was not racist, they very well may hate any given culture by the end of their tenure at any given prison based on the less than scholarly behavior they witnessed firsthand.
8 - The Prison Case Manager - The prison case manager is there for one reason only, and that is to guarantee his or her job. Although the title sounds like they are there to work on your case, the better title for them would actually be "Prison Account Managers." Without prisoners a prison becomes obsolete, so a case manager has to ensure that they keep your ass in prison for as long as "legally" possible. They will hide information from you, lie to you, keep important documents from you, and anything that is within their power to make sure that you do not get released any sooner than they have to. Are there good case managers, absolutely, just as there are good prison staff workers, but the majority of them are jaded and miserable, and they take out their frustrations on the easiest people, the prisoners. If you get a racist case manager, which is very possible, you are pretty much screwed. If your case manager does not like you, despite of your race, you are pretty much screwed as well.
9 - Probation officer/Supervisor - Out of all of the rumors, firsthand experiences, and stories I have heard, the probation officer seems to be one of the ones that appears to be the most evenly spread across the board. In other words, I have heard as many horror stories about them as I have great stories. My experience has actually been great. Once again, after years of being treated like complete shit by prison guards and case managers, I expected the same from my supervisors but they have been nothing but fair and have treated me like a human being. As a prisoner, you get so accustomed to being treated like complete dirt all of the time that when someone is actually normal to you it throws you off. However, there is a chance, depending on who your officer is, what part of the country you are in, just like anything else in life, where you may not be so lucky.
These nine officials at minimum are the ones who will control your life for a significant amount of time. Between the investigation, the prosecution, the incarceration and finally your probation, we are talking about a good decade of your life (if you are under federal investigation, and you are not a rich connected celebrity or politician, you will go to prison longer than otherwise, ask Donald Trump's former campaign chair Paul Manafort for advice on that one). The best thing to do of course is to not screw up, but even that does not mean much, I met five innocent people in prison, two of which have since won their appeals. The government does not care if you are innocent, they care if they can prove your guilt on anything, even if it is not the original thing they were initially after you about. If there is anything that you remember out of all of this, please remember that. By the time the feds have invested money in proving your guilt, if you are in fact innocent, the government will see what they can possibly find you guilty of in the world of technicalities if they cannot prove their initial case against you. For African Americans and Hispanics, and for most people, winning against a government that will do anything in its power to send you to prison, or winning an appeal while in prison, is a joke and an exercise in futility in this country. No minority should wish to white if ever up against the law in this country. No white person should wish they were rich or influential to have leniency on their case.
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