Looking Down the Barrel of a Brand New Day - COMPLETED

Twenty-Eight

Thursday, May 26, 2016

Jack

7:00AM: Public meeting on whether Jason (ax case), will get a recommendation for treatment or prison. 

I am not permitted to speak. 

The Board is made up of Judges, DAs, Public Defenders, treatment professionals, etc. They have all the power to decide Jason's fate. It's very hard to watch and not speak...

But they have free breakfast in steamer trays!

FREE!

Eggs, tater tots!

Coffee, no tea.

Very heavy atmosphere, heavy meeting.

22 members on the board. First topic is new protocols for life-sentence offenders. Now they are discussing the proper response to escapes. Lots of big dudes here with badges and guns.

I can't believe they don't have tea.

Tater tots!

Starting case review.

The first case is incest. The victim just spoke. She is crying. Defendant went down in flames. The Board voted for prison. No treatment. Next case...

Of the 22 board members, the elected DA is the most harsh & punitive. When he speaks and comes down on a candidate, the others listen, many follow. He just shot down another guy. Dude is heading to prison.

The Public Defender member is fighting back, he's in the minority, and clawing his way uphill. Hope he speaks up for Jason.

Jason's case just called up. The public defender is pitching treatment. The DA wants prison. The chair, a judge, is for prison.

The vote. Some members abstain. The vote is 8 to 7 to reject Jason for treatment.

Ugh....FUCK!!!

....fuck......

.....f.......

Only option left is straight prison. Sentencing for Jason in 7 days....Free breakfast is now making me sick...

Meeting adjourned. Time to pick up the pieces and keep on working. 

Back to the office. Back to work.

Just had to tell Jason about being rejected for treatment, and his sentencing to prison next week.

Hate this.

Hate it.

He took it pretty well. Later, he's dropping off 5 cords of wood. Cases like this make me want to split logs.

Jack

Prostitution: Records of prostitution go back to the beginning of human history. Early civilizations show evidence that prostitution was tolerated and even supported as a method to allow unwed girls an opportunity to earn their dowry. Babylonians required every woman to wait in the Temple of Ishtar until they had sex with a stranger who selected them by placing a coin on her lap. This was considered a solemn religious duty. 

There is extensive evidence of prostitution in the Old Testament. Later records seem to show that religious involvement may have financially benefited the temples and priests who oversaw the practice. The early Roman Empire tolerated prostitution, but regulated it. Roman prostitutes had to register with police, wear distinctive clothing, and dye their hair yellow or wear yellow wigs. 

The Middle Ages coexisted with prostitution. However, the sanctity of marriage was becoming more prevalent along with monogamy. The principle was monogamy for women, good. Monogamy for men, bad. St. Augustine provides the bullet proof logic for the double standard, "More women than one can be made pregnant by one man, whereas one woman cannot be made pregnant by more than one man."

In Dark Ages France, prostitutes wore a badge, could not wear jewels, and we're barred from certain parts of cities. Nonetheless, their revenues were shared with towns and local universities. In Avignon, a brothel was housed in the Pope's residence, and prostitutes received weekly inspections. 

In the late 1400s and 1500s sexually transmitted diseases, were believed to have spread to Europe from the New World on the bodies of Columbus' crew. The epidemic brought a period of heavy punishment for prostitutes. The new disease was syphilis. Sex with prostitutes became a felony and a second conviction was punished by death.

Later, in the New World, prostitution flourished. Groups of prostitutes followed the Continental Army from one battle to another during the Revolutionary War. Some American commanders discouraged the trade. Others promoted it as a way of boosting morale. By 1800, a survey reported more than 200 brothels in lower Manhattan alone. Concurrently, 75% of New York men reported being afflicted with a sexually transmitted disease. 

The Gold Rush of 1840 brought men and prostitution to the Wild West. Brothels spread throughout the West and were either legal or ignored by law enforcement. In Tombstone, Arizona, commercial sex was elevated with the installation of 14 "hanging cribs" to heighten the sexual experience. By 1858, prostitution grossed more than $6,300,000 annually, more than the combined revenues of the American shipping and brewing industries.

The telephone was introduced to America in the early twentieth century. The device converted many prostitutes to "call girls". The Jazz Age was in some respects, born in brothels. Prohibition pushed law abiding citizens into speak-easies, which often were just brothels that combined illegal alcohol with illegal sex. Both thrived. The end of prohibition altered prostitution but did not harm it. In 1960, the birth control pill was introduced eliminating the risk of pregnancies and extending the productive career of prostitutes. 

In 1973, COYOTE, a prostitute rights organization, was founded. Others followed.

Prostitution is big and dangerous. Current sources estimate that there are 1,000,000 prostitutes in America, 1 for every 300 residents (exactly the same as the number of lawyers). Sex for money hauls in $14,000,000,000 per year. Thirty percent of single men report that they have had sex with a prostitute at least once. Eighty-three percent of those men believe prostitution is an addiction, 40% of them report they were intoxicated when they paid for sex. Rates for prostitutes begin at roughly $150/hour and go up to $2000/hour. "Management" typically takes a large share of the fee. 

In New Jersey, a study found 57% of all prostitutes were HIV+. 68% of prostitutes have been raped. 82% violently assaulted. The mortality rate for prostitutes is 459/100,000. That death rate is more than three times higher than the death rate for commercial fishing which has the highest official death rate on earth. 

Jack

Carmen is getting ready for the Memorial Day rush. Is Detective Balsam getting his crew and beautiful wavy locks set for a weekend bust?

[Photo: Carmen dolled-up on Facebook--REDACTED]

[⭐Vote⭐ for cops with thick and lustrous hair!]

Photo: ManWoman by StockSnap, 2019 (Pixabay #2589818).