The Wonderful System

• As long as eight years ago, my brother L transported ecstasy from one place to another place at the behest of someone, a friend of a friend. This is true: he actually did the crime, was charged and received a conditional sentence. Essentially probation, and he wasn't allowed to leave the county.
• Eight years ago my other brother was in England with an associate. I can't remember what the official version of that was. I was in Brockville for the summer when I received a call from a barrister in England. "'T'appears your brother is in a spot of trouble," he said. He was being held for trying to import $2 million of cocaine in a hollowed-out briefcase. Importing drugs in the UK means life. Period. A spot of trouble indeed.
• About two years later he gets acquitted of those crimes, but the guy he was travelling with does not: he gets 12 years. The man was a senior citizen. Still is, as far as I know.
• During all of this, or likely before all of this, a guy, the same one possibly, has another job for L. More money, and this time it's coke. He agrees. He's being set up, though. At this point, the police decided that both brothers were a major threat (at one point they were described as "drug lords", more like drug tools) and decide to try to throw L in jail, even though they already had their chance with the ecstasy.
• Years pass. L is not allowed to leave Leeds County. He lost his job for a while. His wife had to go back to school and get a job. By itself this isn't bad, but it wasn't their plan. (It was turned out very well, though: She is almost a full real estate agent and is already doing great.)
• Turns out that the cops set L up. There was never any cocaine. They entrapped him. They could never prove that the drugs ever existed, because they never did. This actually did come up at the trial. L was charged with "intent to traffic", even though he would never have had that intent had the cops not set him up.
• The judge, some tough guy from Ottawa with political aspirations, tells the jury that my brother is guilty as he is charging them. Naturally, the jury listens.
• Anyone associated with my other brother is labelled a criminal in the eyes of the people of Leeds County. There was no way in hell either of them could have gotten a free trial there. Neither could I, actually.
• In fact, I fully believe that if I were still living there, they would have tried something with me, too. But I was always known as "the smart one" and got out of Brockville as fast as I could. Young and innocent, that's me.

My sister called me after I requested contact immediately after a decision was made. She explained to me that five years was a bargain. The prosecutor (another one vying for office) was going for the maximum sentence of 14 years. 14 years for intent to traffic contraband that never existed. 14 years for being the guy the cops wanted to bust because he was related to someone else. 14 years for trusting what you thought was a friend (the offer was made by a buddy of his, who turned out to be a cop). I don't excuse the intent: it was a poor decision made by a poor, or at least not close to rich man just trying to get ahead for once.

Apparently sentences of 16, 18 or 20 years are fairly common for these types of offences. It is considered one of the most serious crimes you can commit. The reason why my brother only got five years is because he has never had so much as a pretty clean record, and more than 20 people wrote in (including myself) as character witnesses. My sister says that that was a major factor in the "light" sentence.

In Canada, people that go to minimum security facilities (which is where my brother is headed after processing) live in a pretty sweet arrangement. Some of them are like resorts. Some are beautiful, serene farms. You are well-fed, you have all or most of the amenities of home, and sometimes you can get an education. A university degree, even.

The reason why people are in jail is because they pose a threat to society and must be removed. Who do you see in these minimum-security prisons? People with 31 grams of pot on them. People who had too many parking tickets. People who transported non-existent drugs. People who pass joints, and therefore are trafficking. People who pose no threat to anyone. You can skin and kill a cat, videotape it, call it performance art, and not spend a day in jail.

On the other hand, for some people, these offenses are a strategic move. If you have nothing or very little, can't make ends meet, are possibly depressed, a drug trafficking charge may be just the thing you need to keep your belly full and your cable TV habit satisfied, all while making yourself more marketable. I think that the best strategy for dealing with these people is to send them to jail only after they have been caught doing whatever bullshit they were doing a number of times. And then send them for a slightly longer period of time at that point. Or prohibit them from owning or managing a business if it is business fraud, or make them stay in the community doing community work if they are a chronic pothead. They say that you a can't tell who's in and who's out at these minumum-security places. Why do we even bother with this waste of resources?

I would suggest that jail should be for the murders and rapists. Child molesters. Speaking of those, B.C.'s own John Robin Sharpe, convicted child-porn producer and possessor, was acquitted of "intent to harm a child" or whatever the charge was because there was no actual child. He just wrote stories about fictional children that he wanted to "love". Something seems wrong here. Rapists and murderers often get sentences of two years less a day (if it were two years, they'd have to go to a maximum security prison, and we couldn't have that for the friendly killers), but having 31 grams of pot could get you 10 years.

My sister says that the reporter covering the story was on the prosecutor's side of the room, chatting and joking with him. He was taking furious notes whenever the judge was arguiing with the defense, or whenever the prosecutor spoke. And when it was the defense's turn, he was&8212;asleep. Not only was he not taking notes, he was nodding off, and at times, actually SLEEPING on the job. These people can't even get the score of the local high school basketball game between the Red Rams and the Pirates, but we're supposed to believe their account of the facts and goings-on of a trial. There is an online article written about the sentencing that I will post later.

L has about a week left before they ship him off. He had better get a good start on that degree while he's in there. And I hope this doesn't warp his ten-year-old son.

I know that he did something stupid twice. He was punished for the first offence as he should have been. House arrest, basically. There were, after all, drugs that he did traffic. But to be thrown in jail for non-existent drugs, to be set up to further someone else's career? Does this make sense? Add to that the unprofessional judge, the sheep on the jury and the one-sided reporter, and I think I'd rather take my chances with a craps game than with the system. The November Coalition is an organization that fights the war against the war on drugs. By brother's story pales in comparison to some of these ones, but it is an example of a system with its priorities out of whack.

I have always had a fear of being accused of something I didn't do, or being punished far in excess of what is reasonable. These aren't just irrational fears anymore.