Soft on Crime Doesn't Reform or Stop Criminals
Meet Rocky Romell Wilson, career criminal. He shows up in April of 2011 on a criminal probable cause arrest. The charges are possession of drugs, drug paraphernalia, obstructing an officer, and driving under suspension. He is given a chance in the drug court but in May of 2012 he has a warrant issued for failing to appear. His attorney promises to bring him in but a few months later another warrant is issued for failing to appear. In October of 2012 Rocky is pleading guilty and given one year in county jail on several counts, served concurrently of course. Not only that, but two other counties that had convictions against him allowed the time to serve for those convictions as well. One year in jail cleared three counties worth of criminal charges....talk about a deal. Rocky continues to this day to pay $50.00 per month against his court fines and costs.
But while out on bond for these first charges Rocky and a female accomplice are arrested in June 2011 on charges of forgery and possession of stolen property.
Rocky is out on bond shortly after the arrest but by November of 2011 he is failing to appear in court and a warrant is issued for his arrest. His bondsman picks him up in a few months and Rocky bonds out again. The drug court gives Rocky another chance and he is ordered to begin paying fines and court costs in February of 2012. The Community Sentencing program takes over to divert Rocky from the county jail and prison and in three months Rocky has another arrest warrant for failure to appear. The case is adjudicated in late 2012 with Rocky serving time concurrently on two other criminal charges from two other counties. By June of 2013 Rocky is failing to appear again and an arrest warrant is issued. Rocky shows up two years later and finally agrees to pay $50.00 per month toward the costs and fines of the convictions.
Another set of charges has Rocky arrested in December of 2010 for possession of drugs, out on bail and fails to appear in court in July of 2011. The bondsman finds him and jails him, another bondman writes a bond so Rocky is released, then that bondsman puts him back in jail where he is convicted and sent to prison for seven years in June of 2012.. In March of 2015 Rocky is out and agrees to pay $50.00 per month toward the thousands of dollars owed in fines and court costs. In early 2017 he pays off the last of his debt on this conviction.
Then in December of 2011 Rocky is arrested for possessing stolen property. By June a warrant has been issued for failure to appear in court. His bondsman finds him and returns him and he pleads guilty and is transported to prison to serve the term concurrently with his earlier conviction. He gets out in March of 2015 and has yet to pay a dime on these costs.
But he was busy living the life of a criminal while all this was going on . In March of 2012 he is caught with a firearm while on probation or after a felony conviction, possession of meth, and driving while under suspension. In June he is sentenced to seven years, served concurrently with the previous conviction, meaning he served no time for the additional crimes. He is out at the end of his other sentence in 2015 and starts paying on his fines and court costs and continues to pay as of this writing.
Rocky hadn't learned his lesson yet, in September of 2015 he is arrested again on charges of possessions of drugs and drug paraphernalia. The suspect is out on bond ever since, with no trial or adjudication since September of 2015 as of this writing.
So it sounds like a good ending with the criminal paying several hundred dollars per month toward his fines and finally staying out of trouble, right? No actually, Rocky is re arrested in February of 2018 for possession of weed, quickly bonds out of jail and the dance continues for Rocky Romell Wilson.
Why would this man straighten out his life? He commits a dozen crimes and settles his debt to society with a short stay in prison and a shorter stay in county jail. There has been no additional penalty for the other crimes and more than enough motivation to continue his crime spree to pay the costs and fines for the previous convictions. He is getting public defenders and chance after chance after chance to turn his life around but frankly he likes being a criminal.
The solution is as always, cheap prisons and lots of them, prisons that work the prisoners to make the prisons produce a profit from labor and instead of being a drain on tax dollars they help support other programs and needs. And sentences that do not serve concurrently but one after the other till all the debt to society has been paid.
