Marjorie Waterman

“Life Does Not Get Better by Chance, it Gets Better by Change”

                                                                                          Jim Rohn

For twenty years, I taught GED classes in a Miami-Dade County jail. Here is what I learned. “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” 

Inmates come in all sizes, shapes, colors, and walks of life. Crimes are committed by a cornucopia of criminals: CEO’s, doctors, lawyers, politicians, clergy, cops, and street criminals. Anyone is capable of getting snared in the noose of the legal system, including the innocent.

One of the jail’s celebrity guests was a Marlins baseball star, arrested for ‘roid rage during a bar fight on South Beach. Just like that, he went from the jet set scene to the slammer.

 “Do not pass go. Do not collect two-hundred dollars. Go directly to jail.”

Crimes consist of a cornucopia of acts: murder, sexual assault, battery, money laundering, drug trafficking, fraud, and more.

How much time one serves, who stays in jail and who bonds out is complicated.

Every day, there were dozens of bail-bondsmen queued up in back of the jail lobby, shuffling papers, waiting to retrieve clients. The female bonds-persons dressed mostly in low-cut, spaghetti-strap tops, skinny jeans, and stiletto heels. Did this femme fatale fashion helped to entice new clients? I wondered if  services ever included more than bail. 

The law is not about truth. Trials are not won or lost based on facts. Verdicts are reached depending on which attorney is the most creative. Whoever tells the best story wins.

Wealthy offenders with highly-paid attorneys bond out. The good-ole-boy system thrives. Bond, or bail, consists of a specific fee, determined by the court, that allows a person charged with a crime to remain free until his trial date ... unless the judge declares, “No bond.” This happens if the crime is a violent felony or if the accused is a flight risk. Should a suspect fail to show, bond is revoked and a warrant is issued to retrieve the missing miscreant. Bond money is forfeited. Defendants with limited financial resources cannot afford bail even if it’s offered. 

A plea deal involves both prosecutors and defense attorneys, negotiating a deal; then the defense attorney must persuade her client to accept. 

“My judge set bail at twenty thousand dollars. There’s no way I can pay,” one of my students told me. 

“Some people own homes and can use them for collateral. I don’t even own a car. I’m a waitress earning minimum wage plus tips. Oh well,” she said philosophically, “There’s a silver lining. Maybe I’ll finally get a GED. I can’t go to school when I’m out. I have to work and take care of my baby.” This was a story I heard over and over.

Bond can be revoked if new charges accrue while a person is out on bail. Police officers can file additional charges so that an individual will be rearrested.

A cop I knew said, “It’s frustrating to catch a crook, then see him right back on the street I feel like I’m spinning my wheels.”

 For the inmate, the waiting begins.

“They threw every charges they could think of at me to see what would stick,” said Alfredo, a student in my male class. “Like slinging spaghetti against a wall. I got caught for car jacking,but was also charged with resisting arrest because I asked the officer a question. I just asked if I could call my mom.”  

Ninety percent of all cases are plea bargained. Sometimes this is because the perpetrator is guilty, more often it’s because the system wears people down. Inmates who refuse to accept a plea deal languish in jail for years even when innocent. Convictions are often secured by having one codefendant snitch on another. Whoever talks first gets a lesser sentence, or none at all, the other(s) get the maximum. Police are allowed to lie to suspects, claiming to have evidence. I asked a prosecutor about this, saying I thought it unjust. “If this weren't allowed,” she said, “We’d rarely get convictions.” This shocked me.

The impact of incarceration is devastating. Inmates become profoundly depressed, suicidal. Their symptoms are similar to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, a condition suffered in war zones.

Family members are also traumatized. Marriages collapse. Children end up in foster-care, homes are lost, jobs forfeited, cars repossessed. Loss of self-esteem soon follows.

Defendants have the right to a speedy trial, but the system can and will delay cases for years.

“I’m never comin’ back to Florida,” said Lawrence, a young country boy. “I’m from Tennessee, Ma’am. I came here for Spring Break. I was havin’ dinner at the Outback, sittin’ at the bar. I’d had one too many.” He lowered his eyes, embarrassed.

“I reached behind me to grab the attention of a gal I thought was the waitress, to order another drink, all of a sudden I hear this scream. Next thing I know, I’m under arrest.

Turns out the filly wasn’t no waitress. She was a customer, like me, when I reached back, I grabbed her breast, not her arm.” He shuddered. “My lawyer says I’ll be out soon, but I’m never comin’ back to Miami. Nothin’ like this ever happened to me before. I ain’t never been arrested back home.” The system promises. “Innocent until proven guilty.” This is not what it practices.

  Accepting a guilty plea allows an individual to serve a shorter sentence, or no sentence at all, followed by probation. 

“Probation’s a trap,” said Joyce, a new mother. “ I might have to serve my full sentence.” She huffed to calm herself and continued. “My PO violated me. I didn’t call her on time. “I was in labor,” she wailed. “So here I am, in jail again.”

Who was taking care of her new baby?

Cops often arrest the same person over and over. It’s human nature to assume that if someone committed an offense and a similar crime happens again, in the same neighborhood, it must have been committed by the same perpetrator. This makes it difficult for those trying to reform. Community control would be a much fairer option, and more economical, both for the system and the individual, enabling those accused to keep their lives intact, and saving the government the cost of incarceration. Community control requires the alleged offender to wear a tracking device 24/7 and limits their activity until the case is settled. Those charged with crimes can keep their jobs and maintain family life until the cases come to court. 

The US incarcerates more of it’s citizens than any other nation. We are five percent of the world population and have twenty-five percent of the world’s prisoners.

It costs taxpayers approximately thirty thousand dollars a year to keep one person incarcerated.

Incarcerated men, can’t pay child support. If allowed to remain free, to continue working, their children would be better off. 

“How am I supposed to pay child support when I’m locked up?” said Tony, one such dad. “I could lose custody all together. The system stinks.”

Guilty or innocent? I didn’t know, but the state had already punished Tony, regardless.

Corrections is being privatized, into a major profit-making industry. This is wrong. Private companies sign contracts requiring governments to insure that ninety percent of their beds stay occupied. In some states, the incarceration rate is going up as crime rate is declining. This was recently revealed on 60 Minutes. Private companies pay less, and train less. Inmates grow ill and sometimes die from lack of medical care. There is no rehabilitation.

The recidivism rate is high, about eighty percent. Recidivism means once someone has been convicted, they are likely to be re-arrested. 

60 Minutes featured a program in Germany that promotes rehabilitation, and is much more effective and economical. Germany focuses on drug rehabilitation, education, job training, and transition of ex-offenders back into the community. 

Statistics in the US show those who earn a GED are twenty percent less likely to return to jail. Crime prevention programs would be cheaper and more beneficial, both to the inmate and to society at large. 

A small percentage of the criminal population does need to be confined. There are serial killers who feel no remorse. These criminals do present a clear and constant threat. 

The Psychopath Test, by Jon Ironson, explains that brain scans of diagnosed psychopaths show a physical abnormality in the amygdala, an almond shaped mass of grey matter inside each cerebral hemisphere, involved with the experience of emotions. This deficiency causes a lack empathy. These people cannot feel remorse.

Also, there are the sex offenders. There is no cure.

“I can’t help myself,” Daniel, confided. “I don’t want to abuse little kids. It’s a disease. I can’t stop. I wish they’d castrate me.”

Daniel was in my class because of a glitch. He’d recently been arrested on a different charge, and inadvertently placed in general population instead of the unit designated for sex offenders. Sex offenders, especially child molesters, are the dregs of the jail population. Inmates will attack them with little provocation. They’re not allowed to mingle.

Laws need changing. Prohibition was a failure. The war on drugs has been lost, sexual encounters between consenting adults will never stop. Decriminalizing victimless crimes would save lots of money and heartache. A judge I know said, “Don’t lawmakers get it?  We’re spinning our wheels. Laws that go against the grain of human nature never work. These cases clog the system and cost tax payers a bundle. I’d rather see the money going for drug rehabilitation programs and job training. Inmates should be treated humanely. Otherwise, we become those we criticize.”

Crime does pay, not for those incarcerated but for those working for the system.  A huge portion of the state budget goes to build, support, and maintain jails and prisons. For every inmate, there are thirteen people whose jobs remain secure: judges, lawyers, bailiffs, corrections officers, cooks, maintenance workers, secretaries, doctors, nurses, drivers, counselors, psychologists, and teachers. I learned this in a Corrections class, at Florida International University. 

Sadly, even without programs to modify behavior, most inmates are eventually released, including the sex offenders, and the psychopaths. Jails and prisons, as they operate today, accomplish only two things. They house convicted felons ... temporarily ... and they produce professionally trained criminals. Ex-offenders are now angrier and more well-indoctrinated in criminal techniques.

In many states, once felons have completed their sentences, civil rights are automatically restored. Currently, there are about a million disenfranchised voters in the state of Florida, whose rights have yet to be reinstated, mostly minorities. 

I took classes at FIU in Corrections, wanting to understand the system. The most interesting thing I learned was the answer to this question: “Who are the safest people to let out of jail?” The answer shocked me. ...  It’s the murderers. Not the psychopathic, but those who kill in a fit of rage. Studies show that these people suffer great remorse and will never kill again.

Contrary to data, current law requires all first-degree murderers to be sentenced to life. If it is a known fact that these offenders will not reoffend, the law should be amended. Current sentencing guidelines are not just, nor do they offer remedies. Sentencing is based on revenge.

Crime is costing tax-payers trillions of dollars. Most of this crime doesn’t involve anyone currently incarcerated. It’s white collar crime, tax fraud, internet heists, identity theft, bank and corporate rip-offs, Ponzi schemes and political scams. These rackets are epidemic. They pose as great a threat to our security and well-being as street crime, probably greater. 

Street crime garners attention because it’s in our faces. The media fuels it. “If it bleeds it leads.” 

White collar crime is more insidious, ignored or undiscovered. Some of the worst criminals are living and working among us. The book, Five Types Of People Who Can Ruin Your Life, states eighty percent who fall in this category are not inmates, they are CEO’s, military generals, attorneys, politicians, and surgeons. These psychopaths are corrupting our democracy.

The justice system is broken. An adjustment in perspective is required if we are to improve. Society still believes “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.” 

Nietzsche said, “If we follow the principle of ‘an eye for an eye,’ ... the whole world will be blind.” 

In Please Pardon My Inmates, Ms. Waterman reveals how her incarcerated students overcame the stifling conditions of the judicial system to excel beyond her wildest expectations. Residing in Miami, Florida, she now practices downward dog while standing up against injustice wherever she finds it.