Chris Carver waits in the courtroom for two hours before his name is called. Spokane municipal judge Mary Logan tells him to stand: “We’re dealing with your case now.” He struggles to his feet. His beard is shabby. Branch-like tattoos wind around his eyes. He flashes a boyish grin through weary eyes.
Judge Logan faces him from the bench, an American flag draped behind her: “So, Mr Carver, you want to waive your right to have an attorney represent you?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“So that is your right, Mr Carver, to do that,” the judge says. “I always wonder why, when you … qualify to have counsel assigned at no expense to you–”
Carver interrupts: “Because it’s a maximum penalty of a year in jail, and that ain’t nothing to me, ma’am.”
“I’m sorry, what?” the judge asks.
Carver continues: “I’m homeless, out there on the streets and everything. A year is nothing to me … I don’t know what else to do.”
The judge presses: “I would hate for you […]
It seems like it would be more of an advantage to send them all to college than prison.
The policy of slashing housing assistance for the poor started under the Reagan administration, preferring punishment as an option. Things have never recovered.