She got 12 years for $31 of pot. Years after her parole, she was jailed for the unpaid court fees.

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

She got 12 years for $31 of pot. Years after her parole, she was jailed for the unpaid court fees.

By Antonia Noori Farzan
September 12, 2019 at 6:44 a.m. EDT

Sitting in her jail cell this week, Patricia Spottedcrow couldn’t imagine where she was going to get the money she needed for her release.

In 2010, the young Oklahoma mother, who had been caught selling $31 worth of marijuana to a police informant after financial troubles caused her to lose her home, was sentenced to 12 years in prison. It was her first-ever offense, and the lengthy sentence drew national attention, sparking a movement that led to her early release.

But once she was home free, Spottedcrow still owed thousands in court fees that she struggled to pay, since her felony conviction made it difficult to find a job. Notices about overdue payments piled up, with late fees accumulating on top of the original fines. On Monday, the 34-year-old was arrested on a bench warrant that required her to stay in jail until she could come up with $1,139.90 in overdue fees, which she didn’t have. Nearly a decade after her initial arrest, she was still ensnarled in the criminal justice system, and had no idea when she would see her kids again.

“I had no idea how I was going to pay this off,” Spottedcrow told KFOR on Wednesday, after strangers raised the money for her release. “I knew I was going to be sitting here for a while.”

In 2011, Spottedcrow became an unwitting poster child for criminal justice reform when the Tulsa World featured her in a series about women incarcerated in Oklahoma. Then 25, she had just entered prison for the first time, and didn’t expect to be reunited with her young children until they were teenagers.

-snip-

Read more: https://beta.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/09/12/patricia-spottedcrow-marijuana-year-sentence/

[Eyeball_Kid]

1. Tragic.

I'm in a legal state that is utterly saturated with pot. It's legal. There are legal marijuana stores, more plentiful than churches OR taverns. And Spottedcrow sits in jail for doing something in Oklahoma that I can do in my back yard, with friends, any time I wish, and it's as dangerous as drinking orange juice. Oh. And I can legally grow pot in my back yard. THAT'S as dangerous as growing petunias.

The people of Oklahoma and its criminal "justice" system ought to be ashamed.

[Cartaphelius]

2. Too bad

that she didn't pay her "lawyer" $150,000.00 to bribe someone to make
this minor kerfuffle to go away.

It worked for Trump! In Trumps world it should work for everyone.

The State of Oklahoma owes her an apology and restitution at a minimum.

[mountain grammy]

3. American justice. Disgusting

I’d give my last dollar to the ACLU.

[Stuart G]

4. I totally agree, this story is truly "disgusting", and hard to believe too.

[mountain grammy]

5. Not that hard to believe

seen this shit with my own eyes..deliberately ruining people's lives in a vicious money grab from poor people.

And I shouldn't mention the ACLU without a nod to the NAACP Defense fund.. I donate to both monthly. Fighting for justice.

[dlk]

6. We Are a Nation with Debtors Prisons, Even Though We Fought a Revolutionary War Against Them

Our country has strayed far and today looks much more like the united corporations than the United States. When the president's campaign manager, who committed multiple felonies and arguably, treason, serves much less time behind bars than a mother selling $12 of marijuana, we can see how deeply the corruption has permeated our entire criminal justice system. It is more of a profit-generating system to punish the poor than anything actually embodying our purported belief in criminal justice. We can only hope that if one of our many qualified Democratic candidates is allowed to be elected (given the high levels of Republican cheating), we can finally address this grievous injustice that has needlessly ruined hundreds of thousands of American lives in the name of profits for the corporations.

[IronLionZion]

7. Some of our presidential candidates have promoted reforms on this

since it just isn't right when people in other states can buy and use it legally. Her punishment is way too harsh.

[FiveGoodMen]

9. "Her punishment is way too harsh"

ANY punishment is way too harsh

[Toorich]

8. Oklahoma...

... like many other "red states" has slashed taxes for the rich to the bone. It now has a Constitutional provision that requires
a "super majority" to increase taxes. As a result, when the legislature passes a bill that requires funding, the Office
of Budget Management is told to find the money. Fees are then created and the legislature codifies them as court costs.
Technically, there is no debtors prison, but the failure to obey the "Judge's Order" to pay fines and fees is treated as
contempt of court and that gets you jailed until the money is paid.
Hundreds of poor/indigent people appear on "cost dockets" every month in this State. Many are jailed for their failure to pay.
The Okla Court of Criminal Appeals has rules providing for Indigency Hearings but they are routinely ignored at the trial
court level.
It is shameful.

[stuffmatters]

10. In addition to its blatant sadism, this "pol.icy" probably costs Oklahomans lots of money.

How much are Oklahomans paying per diem for each of these incarcerations. I bet it adds up ultimately to way more that the fines or any money ever forced from their hostages/prisoners.

The is another example of not just the cruelty but the stupidity of Red States/ Republican Economics.

[BigmanPigman]

11. Meanwhile tRump, his family, his corrupt cabinet

and admin, etc as well as Flynn and hundreds of enablers get off without a slap on the wrist.

[JI7]

12. woman of color