Great information, now I hope that they will sit down with you! BTW VOCAL is an organization which shouldn’t be allowed during a parole hearing! They are supporting the victim yes, but they are not part of the Alabama Justice system! This organization has got itself in on everything but by true laws they should be sending a letter to the parole board or there for support of a victims family member, not degrading the inmates family or the inmate, that inmate has already been charged and sentenced and they stand in that parole board room acting like they are DA’s and the DA’s are using them also for their own selfish monetary reasons as in not sending someone from their own office! Also How does VOCAL get the exact statement that ADOC has upon an inmate’s sentence and entering the prison System? They should never have that statement because it is a investigator’s opinion to ADOC and now Vocal is using those exact words at every parole hearing and they shouldn’t never have that piece of paper. Vocal was suppose to be to ensure that victim were show equal justice but this Vocal group in Alabama is overkill! It’s more like 95% to 5% , does this really look equal! I think it’s a money pit also with its 1900 members and Governor Ivy behind it! I’m all for equal justice but this is not equal Justice! It’s evil , vindictive and plan vengeance , nothing more and nothing less! When citizens of Alabama get to experience this you’ll understand, but until then you’ll never know what true justice is because you are listening to vindictive, vengeful people in politics! Remember God says” vengeance is mine” he didn’t say it’s the people’s!
Beth, I enjoy every piece you write, I pray that one of these people that was mentioned in this, would sit up and take notice of what they are doing and realize that THEY are the problem
Another excellent piece crying out for justice, Beth. A question: do you believe there is any relationship between the state’s abysmal prison system and the broader cultural values/attitudes of Alabama’s residents? I have been developing a thesis over the last year and a half or so that there are just some innate aspects of “Souther Culture” which are pathological and cause problems in all sorts of places. So it doesn’t surprise me to see this culture expressed in the intolerable criminal justice system you describe.
Well said Beth, i Couldn't agree more. The level of ignorance, hypocrisy and apathy in this state is absolutely jarring. None of these so called leaders are fit to be in the roles that they occupy in my opinion. They certainly don't care about the average citizen in AL, they cater to a base that thinks that they are fighting to maintain a false narrative of some glorious past, some oasis of an ideal that never existed, however that don't stop them whitewashing history and instilling fear into voters. Anyone that is freethinking, informed and of average intelligence can see straight through their bs, those who disagree are labelled "woke" or a radical bleeding heart liberal or a leftist democrat, their base won't take the time to look at who these people really are, what they really do in their personal lives or those of their spouses, to judge for themselves if they really have integrity or whether or not they really practice what they preach.
They are incapable of sitting around the table with someone of a different point of view and coming to some sort of amicable agreement on whatever the problem is, they want to dictate in an authoritarian manner, they don’t even feel like that have to give an account for their actions and they will never be held to account for what they do whilst in office, and they goad those that call them out or try to hold them accountable, its like trying to negotiate with the Taliban, or they just ignore you.
They don't believe in values treasured and held in high regard throughout the westernised world such as Human rights, reproductive and so forth. They don't want equality, they want, us as second class citizens, the poorer and less educated, the better.
AL has a two tiered criminal justice system. They are responsible for keeping the system as it is and prolonging the misery and suffering that incarcerated people face every minute of every day. Be it the threat of or actual murder, mutilation, violence, extortion or rape by guards as well as inmates, healthcare that is non existent, dental care that just extends to extractions, the conditions and stresses in these places is what is driving the proliferation of these crimes, exacerbating the problem is the acute shortage of thousands of guards that ADOC was court ordered to employ, that would ordinarily afford some protection against the proliferation of these crimes.
I believe that this severe overcrowding, loss of good time etc is in direct retaliation to the public response which has thus far thwarted their efforts to build these massive new prisons. Mass incarceration is not the way forward, proper facilities and rehabilitation is, its backed up by the science of statistics and will have a price tag that these so called leaders are not willing to have to answer to the tax payer for, so their answer has been what we’ve seen, more overcrowding, jails full, less guards, more death and violence, drugs and other contraband freely available from the guards looking to literally make a killing on the side, overdose and suicide at all an all time high, despair and depression and the fact that a public entity such as ADOC doesn’t even have to report these “deaths” is an outrage!
The woman in charge of VOCAL, has used every inmate since what happened to her daughter as a scape goat for her pain. She has poured her scorn, malice, anger and hatred, upon every inmate since, but I wonder if it has ever given her any closure, or peace of mind or healed her heart? Does what is happening to the incarcerated people bring her joy now? Marshall, Ivey and Gwathney have done the same all these decades later using Jimmy Lee Spencer as their excuse and scapegoat to inflict further agony on those already incarcerated and in no way connected to either of these cases. No one else is responsible! To mass punish every other inmate and deny parole to the thousands that are eligible and have served often decades incarcerated in these hell hole prisons, is fundamentally unfair and plain wrong.
Great information, now I hope that they will sit down with you! BTW VOCAL is an organization which shouldn’t be allowed during a parole hearing! They are supporting the victim yes, but they are not part of the Alabama Justice system! This organization has got itself in on everything but by true laws they should be sending a letter to the parole board or there for support of a victims family member, not degrading the inmates family or the inmate, that inmate has already been charged and sentenced and they stand in that parole board room acting like they are DA’s and the DA’s are using them also for their own selfish monetary reasons as in not sending someone from their own office! Also How does VOCAL get the exact statement that ADOC has upon an inmate’s sentence and entering the prison System? They should never have that statement because it is a investigator’s opinion to ADOC and now Vocal is using those exact words at every parole hearing and they shouldn’t never have that piece of paper. Vocal was suppose to be to ensure that victim were show equal justice but this Vocal group in Alabama is overkill! It’s more like 95% to 5% , does this really look equal! I think it’s a money pit also with its 1900 members and Governor Ivy behind it! I’m all for equal justice but this is not equal Justice! It’s evil , vindictive and plan vengeance , nothing more and nothing less! When citizens of Alabama get to experience this you’ll understand, but until then you’ll never know what true justice is because you are listening to vindictive, vengeful people in politics! Remember God says” vengeance is mine” he didn’t say it’s the people’s!
Beth, I enjoy every piece you write, I pray that one of these people that was mentioned in this, would sit up and take notice of what they are doing and realize that THEY are the problem
Another excellent piece crying out for justice, Beth. A question: do you believe there is any relationship between the state’s abysmal prison system and the broader cultural values/attitudes of Alabama’s residents? I have been developing a thesis over the last year and a half or so that there are just some innate aspects of “Souther Culture” which are pathological and cause problems in all sorts of places. So it doesn’t surprise me to see this culture expressed in the intolerable criminal justice system you describe.
Well said Beth, i Couldn't agree more. The level of ignorance, hypocrisy and apathy in this state is absolutely jarring. None of these so called leaders are fit to be in the roles that they occupy in my opinion. They certainly don't care about the average citizen in AL, they cater to a base that thinks that they are fighting to maintain a false narrative of some glorious past, some oasis of an ideal that never existed, however that don't stop them whitewashing history and instilling fear into voters. Anyone that is freethinking, informed and of average intelligence can see straight through their bs, those who disagree are labelled "woke" or a radical bleeding heart liberal or a leftist democrat, their base won't take the time to look at who these people really are, what they really do in their personal lives or those of their spouses, to judge for themselves if they really have integrity or whether or not they really practice what they preach.
They are incapable of sitting around the table with someone of a different point of view and coming to some sort of amicable agreement on whatever the problem is, they want to dictate in an authoritarian manner, they don’t even feel like that have to give an account for their actions and they will never be held to account for what they do whilst in office, and they goad those that call them out or try to hold them accountable, its like trying to negotiate with the Taliban, or they just ignore you.
They don't believe in values treasured and held in high regard throughout the westernised world such as Human rights, reproductive and so forth. They don't want equality, they want, us as second class citizens, the poorer and less educated, the better.
AL has a two tiered criminal justice system. They are responsible for keeping the system as it is and prolonging the misery and suffering that incarcerated people face every minute of every day. Be it the threat of or actual murder, mutilation, violence, extortion or rape by guards as well as inmates, healthcare that is non existent, dental care that just extends to extractions, the conditions and stresses in these places is what is driving the proliferation of these crimes, exacerbating the problem is the acute shortage of thousands of guards that ADOC was court ordered to employ, that would ordinarily afford some protection against the proliferation of these crimes.
I believe that this severe overcrowding, loss of good time etc is in direct retaliation to the public response which has thus far thwarted their efforts to build these massive new prisons. Mass incarceration is not the way forward, proper facilities and rehabilitation is, its backed up by the science of statistics and will have a price tag that these so called leaders are not willing to have to answer to the tax payer for, so their answer has been what we’ve seen, more overcrowding, jails full, less guards, more death and violence, drugs and other contraband freely available from the guards looking to literally make a killing on the side, overdose and suicide at all an all time high, despair and depression and the fact that a public entity such as ADOC doesn’t even have to report these “deaths” is an outrage!
The woman in charge of VOCAL, has used every inmate since what happened to her daughter as a scape goat for her pain. She has poured her scorn, malice, anger and hatred, upon every inmate since, but I wonder if it has ever given her any closure, or peace of mind or healed her heart? Does what is happening to the incarcerated people bring her joy now? Marshall, Ivey and Gwathney have done the same all these decades later using Jimmy Lee Spencer as their excuse and scapegoat to inflict further agony on those already incarcerated and in no way connected to either of these cases. No one else is responsible! To mass punish every other inmate and deny parole to the thousands that are eligible and have served often decades incarcerated in these hell hole prisons, is fundamentally unfair and plain wrong.
Great article Beth! And so right on.