Pay up or lockup
David, 28, was counting the days until January 6, 2012, when his prison sentence would end and he would be released on parole. He had earned his GED diploma inside and lined up some job options in construction and landscaping around Albuquerque. But the date came and went, and still the state kept him locked up.
The problem was housing. There was only one halfway house in the state that would take an inmate like David — a convicted sex offender — and it had a long waiting list. If he wanted to get a bed there anytime soon, David would have to buy his freedom — in cash.
He was lucky – he and his sister were able to come up with the money. A $600 rent payment jumped him to the front of the line.
“I felt that I was being treated unfair,” he said. “I’d already fulfilled my obligation of my sentence. Why were they giving me such a hard time?”
David isn’t the only inmate in New Mexico forced to choose between staying behind bars or paying to parole more quickly. Two other men told Searchlight New Mexico that between 2017 and 2018, they paid $1,200 to get into La Pasada, a halfway house in Albuquerque. Several inmates at the Otero County Prison Facility, which houses many sex offenders, said they, too, were aware of the pay-to-play system.
“It’s outrageous,” said Matthew Coyte, an Albuquerque civil rights lawyer. “Making money the determination of whether you get released goes contrary to all the principles behind a just criminal justice system.”
It’s always been about the money.
All of it.
What in the actual F*CK is this absurdity!!!!!!??????
He wasn’t allowed to live with someone who physically resembled the victim of his crime….
I’ve never heard of this EVER! What in the hell does it mean “physically resembles”? Does that mean just being the same gender as the person he offended with? Is there a regime that actually goes to INSPECT what someone LOOKS LIKE? This is madness!!!! Why are we sitting back letting this nonsense happen??????
and he wasn’t permitted to live with his brother, who had a criminal history of his own.
And this is total bullshit! So what if someone else has a criminal past? I love this fear mongering horseshit the government, states and LE try to sell people about how two felons cannot have any relationship at all for fear that they might “conspire to do crime”. People with no goddamn criminal records get together and commit crimes!!!
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY???
I will NEVER lean left but shit like this has me feeling a lack of respect for the country that boasts and brags about how fucking great it is. Right wing conservatives with their police ass kissing and over patriotism make me sick! All it takes is one bad heat of the moment decision to drive home after a night out at the bar with your buddies and these “patriots” would get a hell of a taste of the wonderful police they suck up to and the great country they THINK this is.
This shit has GOT to stop!!!
Could Couldn’t have said it better myself!!
Remember Epstein had/has a Ranch there in good ole New Mexico…Pay-to-Play was certainly his modus operandi wherein he ‘Paid off’ the then Gov Richardson etc to get his way while sex trafficking minors with Madam Maxwell as a co-conspirator at His Ranch!
-Thank goodness, that Ms. Maxwell is wearing a Paper Suit, in 65F Air Conditioning, receiving tres bon cuisine ‘room service’, sleeping on one of those green cots with NO sheets and being moved from cell to cell, on a daily basis…..
The Hypocrisy of American is alive and well in New Mexico….so, sad for those who had to do a State Prison sentence and are ‘nickled and dimed’, and who did their time and became good citizens behind State Bars and enriched themselves with every opportunity at hand, are the ones being slaughtered like PIGS!
reminder…Epstein was ‘given’ a county JAIL sentence and was granted work release 18 hours a day…..So You See, KARMA is alive and well, and I hope Maxwell is freezing her Rass-Ass Off….I just hope, ‘David’ and others can Succeed with Newer Optimism and get the best jobs and housing available to them
Unfortunately, Justice is Defined by the Size of One’s Wallet!
I’m not going to get into a running commentary with you. However, I will say you are only speculating about payoffs to the former governor or anyone else for that matter. Yes Epstein was slimy, and likely broke laws at his ranch although no charges ever emerged from there. I will not comment further on the subject as it is not relevant to the topic of the post.
Regarding the topic of this post, yes we do have the finest legal system money can buy. We see it on the front end with the bail system, and now on the back end with paying to get released to a halfway house. Since New Mexico has no residency restrictions as does Illinois, that can’t be used as a ruse to hold SOs for an extended period. So the state had to take another route.
My impression from the article is that this is a DOC policy and not codified in statutory law. Even if it were, the policy intuitively seems like an affront to the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which specifically restricts state actions.
The proper solution would be for the state to provide adequate halfway house space for SOs. Change the contract with these private halfway houses to require accepting all paroled inmates unless a specific danger can be verified. Of course no change will occur without a successful lawsuit.
As an aside, the feds send those on early release from the BOP to the Diersen Charities halfway house in Albuquerque without conviction-related restrictions or apparent incidents.
Veritas
Sometimes I don’t have time to vet the comments sufficiently and let stuff through that I shouldn’t Sorry Ed.