In case you were going to pretend we have a legit criminal legal system today...um...judges sentence kids more harshly when their preferred football team loses.
They are harsher for *about a week*
Mostly harsher with Black kids.
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TBH if I was a defender and had sentencing set in the week after my judge's college team is playing, well, I'd try to move the date.
AND THAT IS SO STUPID THAT WE HAVE TO THINK ABOUT THINGS LIKE THAT
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On a more serious note, what does this tell you about the legitimacy of sentencing? And whether sentence could ever be a commensurate consequence of wrongdoing?
It's all so subjective. And when it's subjective, you, the public, lose.
Why?
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Well, long sentences haven't been shown to be very deterrent, and the social and safety costs they bring far outweigh any deterrence benefit.
Receipts:
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So if longer sentences might be arising from something as stupid as a judge's lingering feelings about Michigan losing to Ohio State
AND
They're costing you, the ordinary citizen, both your tax dollars and your safety (and harming the health and economy of your neighborhood)...
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You should be pissed. Probably much more pissed than you already are.
And you may want to think about making demands of your locality...like greater transparency about how judges are sentencing people where you are.
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As always thank you to for showing me head-explodingly bad things about our punishment system
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Replying to
But that study was from years ago. Judges have morally evolved since then.
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