Let Your Voice Be Heard re: Action of DC Council

[Anonymous]

A family member of a murder victim is an option or someone like this

https://dcwitness.org/

The idea is someone who is pro-public safety, PP, pro-victim safety. Not some rando DSA crime victim to check a box.

A murderer who served 27 years will very likely advocate for lower sentences on a Sentencing Commission, with that playing dumb I have to wonder if you are trolling? They already have that covered with a member who advocates for a maximum of 20 years for any crime no matter how heinous. Rape and dismember a child? 20 years.

It's the voice of public safety that values the safety of victims that is not represented at all on the Sentencing Commission. Many judges on DC Superior Court and the Court of Appeals are former public defenders. There is no countervailing balance/voice in the system.

[Anonymous]

Not trolling, but if people are going to voice their discontent, they should name a specific alternative. Not just generically say they want a crime victim, because then you'll probably get some crime victim who is an apologist for criminals.

Maybe if I had served 27 years, I would want other criminals to do their time also. Maybe I also would have been exposed to enough hardened criminals that I would want harsh sentences. Not saying that's true here, but we really don't know.

Not sure if you're trolling if you really don't understand that we can't automatically assume a crime victim will want to be tough on criminals, just as we can't assume someone who has served time in prison will want to be soft on criminals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not trolling, but if people are going to voice their discontent, they should name a specific alternative. Not just generically say they want a crime victim, because then you'll probably get some crime victim who is an apologist for criminals.

Maybe if I had served 27 years, I would want other criminals to do their time also. Maybe I also would have been exposed to enough hardened criminals that I would want harsh sentences. Not saying that's true here, but we really don't know.

Not sure if you're trolling if you really don't understand that we can't automatically assume a crime victim will want to be tough on criminals, just as we can't assume someone who has served time in prison will want to be soft on criminals.

It's less about what we can't control in these appointments, than about the common sense of which perspectives are being included. To have a convicts perspective with no crime victims is obtuse at the least.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a noncitizen and a convicted murderer serving as ANCs.


Tell me how this ends.

Who is the noncitizen? You have to hold the people who voted for them accountable.

[Anonymous]

I don’t mind Castón being on the Commission as long as there are also victims rights members and the Commission is not ideologically controlled by “prison abolition” dogma.

[Anonymous]

I think the Commission needs people who are capable of actually understanding and separating out issues.

For example, recognizing and prioritizing the most serious threats, such as violent serial offenders. They need to be taken off the streets until there's some other way to keep them from victimizing people.

If rehabilitation doesn't work, that's a separate issue, it doesn't take away the need to keep them off the streets. DC seems to put a ton of money toward things like rehabilitation with minimal results. Maybe that whole thing needs to be reformed, likely mismanaged like so many other programs in DC, but that still doesn't take away the need to remove violent repeat offenders from society. That's a separate issue to be solved, not one to undo the first because you haven't solved it.

Also, these ideas about things like "restorative justice" - is any of that actually working? I doubt it. If someone was pistol whipped and carjacked and then their car was never recovered, or the car was found wrecked and abandoned somewhere, did the perpetrator provide them with a new car to replace it, and pay for the victim's medical treatment, physical and mental recovery? I doubt anything even remotely like that is happening. So what's being "restored?" If a business saw a big insurance hike because of retail theft, are the perpetrators paying their insurance bill? Doubt it. So what's being "restored?" What happened - they made the perp say "sorry?" Did that really fix anything?

And what's the rationale for turning unrepentant violent repeat offenders loose? Not enough space? Make more. Too expensive? Why should it be? Put the prisoners to work, make them pay for their own upkeep. "But that's cruel and unusual!" WHAAAT? What the hell do you think the rest of us have to do? We have to go to our jobs and put in the hours so that we can pay our rents and bills and put food on our tables. That's a basic fact of life for the rest of us, go to hell with "cruel and unusual." Real estate too expensive in DC? Build outside of DC, or use eminent domain.

[Anonymous]

When Caston was 18, he ambushed and murdered another teenager. Yet when I read what he wrote, he doesn't seem to carry remorse, but rather resentment and entitlement, as if him murdering someone is everyone else's fault. I can't possibly imagine committing a planned murder and then acting like I was a victim:

"Alongside my colleagues Tyrone Walker and Michael Woody—both also tried as adults under 25—we built the Young Men Emerging (YME) program inside the D.C. Jail. The frontal lobe doesn’t fully develop until your mid 20s. So we asked: why are young people who have committed crimes during this transitory phase being tried as adults?"

"The sad fact is that even though Latinos and Black people represent 13% of the US population, we make up 40% of the prison population. We’re bearing the brunt of the prison industrial complex."

"These aren’t glass ceilings, they’re cement—and I’m the fool trying to bust through them. But I’m beginning to see how impactful my win is. Incarcerated people, we sometimes think our voices don’t matter. But Joels and Joelitas can bring value to the table if you give them a chance. Policies have to be rewritten to allow someone like me to qualify to be a politician, to be an investor, to be a banker. If we can do that, then we can open the floodgate. We’re an asset, not a liability."

https://time.com/6119243/joel-caston-prison-reform/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When Caston was 18, he ambushed and murdered another teenager. Yet when I read what he wrote, he doesn't seem to carry remorse, but rather resentment and entitlement, as if him murdering someone is everyone else's fault. I can't possibly imagine committing a planned murder and then acting like I was a victim:

"Alongside my colleagues Tyrone Walker and Michael Woody—both also tried as adults under 25—we built the Young Men Emerging (YME) program inside the D.C. Jail. The frontal lobe doesn’t fully develop until your mid 20s. So we asked: why are young people who have committed crimes during this transitory phase being tried as adults?"

"The sad fact is that even though Latinos and Black people represent 13% of the US population, we make up 40% of the prison population. We’re bearing the brunt of the prison industrial complex."

"These aren’t glass ceilings, they’re cement—and I’m the fool trying to bust through them. But I’m beginning to see how impactful my win is. Incarcerated people, we sometimes think our voices don’t matter. But Joels and Joelitas can bring value to the table if you give them a chance. Policies have to be rewritten to allow someone like me to qualify to be a politician, to be an investor, to be a banker. If we can do that, then we can open the floodgate. We’re an asset, not a liability."

https://time.com/6119243/joel-caston-prison-reform/

We know that you can't imagine being in that situation; that's the value in having a different perspective on the committee.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When Caston was 18, he ambushed and murdered another teenager. Yet when I read what he wrote, he doesn't seem to carry remorse, but rather resentment and entitlement, as if him murdering someone is everyone else's fault. I can't possibly imagine committing a planned murder and then acting like I was a victim:

"Alongside my colleagues Tyrone Walker and Michael Woody—both also tried as adults under 25—we built the Young Men Emerging (YME) program inside the D.C. Jail. The frontal lobe doesn’t fully develop until your mid 20s. So we asked: why are young people who have committed crimes during this transitory phase being tried as adults?"

"The sad fact is that even though Latinos and Black people represent 13% of the US population, we make up 40% of the prison population. We’re bearing the brunt of the prison industrial complex."

"These aren’t glass ceilings, they’re cement—and I’m the fool trying to bust through them. But I’m beginning to see how impactful my win is. Incarcerated people, we sometimes think our voices don’t matter. But Joels and Joelitas can bring value to the table if you give them a chance. Policies have to be rewritten to allow someone like me to qualify to be a politician, to be an investor, to be a banker. If we can do that, then we can open the floodgate. We’re an asset, not a liability."

https://time.com/6119243/joel-caston-prison-reform/

+1

I've read stories about activists who are convicted felons who want to help others who also acknowledge that when they were young (either juveniles or just over 18) that they were wrong, did harmful things that harmed people and regret it, wish they could go back and be better then and not harm people. This is not that.

[Anonymous]

OP I'm going to congratulate the council for picking someone who represents our values. If I served 27 years then I'd probably feel that was too long as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP I'm going to congratulate the council for picking someone who represents our values. If I served 27 years then I'd probably feel that was too long as well.

Maybe too long, maybe not long enough. He doesn't seem to have learned the right lesson though, however long it was.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When Caston was 18, he ambushed and murdered another teenager. Yet when I read what he wrote, he doesn't seem to carry remorse, but rather resentment and entitlement, as if him murdering someone is everyone else's fault. I can't possibly imagine committing a planned murder and then acting like I was a victim:

"Alongside my colleagues Tyrone Walker and Michael Woody—both also tried as adults under 25—we built the Young Men Emerging (YME) program inside the D.C. Jail. The frontal lobe doesn’t fully develop until your mid 20s. So we asked: why are young people who have committed crimes during this transitory phase being tried as adults?"

"The sad fact is that even though Latinos and Black people represent 13% of the US population, we make up 40% of the prison population. We’re bearing the brunt of the prison industrial complex."

"These aren’t glass ceilings, they’re cement—and I’m the fool trying to bust through them. But I’m beginning to see how impactful my win is. Incarcerated people, we sometimes think our voices don’t matter. But Joels and Joelitas can bring value to the table if you give them a chance. Policies have to be rewritten to allow someone like me to qualify to be a politician, to be an investor, to be a banker. If we can do that, then we can open the floodgate. We’re an asset, not a liability."

https://time.com/6119243/joel-caston-prison-reform/

We know that you can't imagine being in that situation; that's the value in having a different perspective on the committee.

Where is the victims rights perspective?

And it’s not that we can’t understand the perspective of somone arguing that felons should pay their debt and return to society without judgment, possibly even with shorter sentences. It’s that this guy is actively downplaying his crime and refusing to take responsibility. The judge gave him 25+ years because it was a cold-blooded, premeditated assassination. This isn’t 13 year olds taking a fight too far. It’s seriously anti-social behavior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP I'm going to congratulate the council for picking someone who represents our values. If I served 27 years then I'd probably feel that was too long as well.

If I literally murdered someone, I’d probably think that I deserved to be executed. What kind of psycholopath narcissist believes they deserve anything other than what mercy is chosen to be bestowed on them after willfully taking a life?

[Anonymous]

We really need to give democrats conjugal visits so they get their fix without putting society at risk

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^typo, the man served 27 years for murder. We all know how difficult it is to get that type of lengthy sentence. Why should HIS voice be elevated re: criminal sentences and not that of victims or families of victims?

Good point. If a person convicted of a crime, why not also appoint a person who was the victim of a crime and family members?