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ALMOST 50 INMATES gathered inside the chapel of the Federal Correctional Institute in Oklahoma at to watch the premiere of “Fixing the System,” a Vice on HBO special report.
Their hope is that it will influence policy-makers to re-examine harsh sentences for non-violent drug offenders.
The inmates who talked to US President Obama during his July visit said the one-hour documentary, will make people more aware of the impact that lengthy sentences have on inmates’ families and communities.
“It takes people away from their families for years and the crime doesn’t fit,” said Tyrone Ramsey, 39, a first-time offender who has served five years of a 15-year sentence for conspiracy with intent to distribute heroin.
The documentary shows interviews with relatives of Ramsey and images of his children playing at the family’s Kansas City, Kansas, home — sights and sounds that Ramsey said made him realise how much he misses the people who were part of his life before prison.
“When I saw it, it was very emotional, especially when I saw my children,” Ramsey said. “It really hit me. It really sparked some thoughts in my mind like: ‘Man, I really messed up in some ways.’”
Another inmate who appears in the film, Jesus Chavez, said he hopes those who see the film “realise we’re all human, we all make mistakes.”
“One mistake shouldn’t really dictate the rest of our lives,” said the 24-year-old from El Paso, Texas, who was sentenced to more than five years in prison for conspiracy to distribute ecstasy.
“This country is about second chances, and the amount of sentence they are giving us … has a lot of impact on what we could do when we get out.”
Arnell Stewart, 27, of Denver, said the producers “hit a home run” by focusing on his and other “compelling stories that go on behind these walls.”
But Stewart, who has served three years of a five-year sentence for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine, said he was originally pessimistic about Obama’s visit and whether it will lead to improvements.
Obama is the first president to visit a federal prison while in office. He called for changes in the criminal justice system, saying a distinction had to be made between young people doing “stupid things” and violent criminals.
After meeting with him, Stewart said he believes the president was sincere.”The body language and the intensiveness that he had, I felt he was genuine,” he said.
Bobby Reed, who did not meet with Obama but appeared in the documentary, called the president’s interaction with the prisoners “a bold step.”
Reed, 57, of Fort Worth, Texas, said he hopes the film encourages the public and Congress to revisit “tough on crime” sentencing guidelines for non-violent drug offenders and focus on “common-sense policies” that punish offenders without destroying their lives.
“I believe we should do time for doing wrong or violating the law, but the amount of time is totally out of touch,” said Reed, who described his own life sentence for conspiracy to distribute cocaine as “a throwaway sentence.”
“You’re throwing away a guy’s life,” he said. “Families, communities, they’re taking the brunt of this here. It breaks the families up. It’s hard for everybody.”
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What an indictment on every TD in Dail Eirinn. They have abandoned the Irish people a long time ago, too busy focusing on Pronouns, travelling the World dishing out Cash & welcoming record numbers to our shores with services at the point of collapse. A failed State, that cannot cater for its Citizens.
@SV3tN8M4: Dáil Éireann
@SV3tN8M4: well said!
@SV3tN8M4: plenty money for concerts all the same
@SV3tN8M4: Pronouns? Would it really makes any of us poorer to have even a little respect for how others live?
The *real* reason for the continual increase in poverty is the adoption of that right-wing neo-liberal economic model that is often called Thatcherism (or Reaganonics), that economic model that insists corporations must not be interfered with in their pursuit of profit, that model that has seen an ever widening wealth gap, with the wealth of the few becoming reaching ever more obscene levels while the numbers experiencing deeper and deeper levels of poverty increase.
But sure, it is all down to pronouns.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: er John wasn’t just focusing on the ‘pronouns’ however it seems to have triggered you as his main thesis, or arguement, he quite rightly touched on our slavish government propping up Ukraine with more cash, getting involved ‘look over here’ politics of exorbitant bike sheds and Mancunian reunions instead of focusing on real matters, and real issues, which they have failed massively at.
@John Mc Dermott:
But still one of the best counties in the world to live in.
@Peter Byrne: and electronic goods
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: let me she /them tiddies
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: if you work you are entitled to nice things. If you don’t work the taxpayers will give you money for the basics.
@Marcus Maher – Triskellion Films: And yet it is *you* that is trying to shoehorn Ukraine into this.
“Pronouns” was the very 1st in Johns complaint.
So, maybe you can answer for John, as John seems unable to.
Would it really makes any of us poorer to have even a little respect for how others live?
@H Woo: Yet those that work the hardest – our youth and now middle-aged – do so to try to make rent, not to have things.
Your theory falls at the 1st hurdle.
@H Woo: For the elite yes.
I’m sure the Ukrainian can help them out most if them have only designer footwear talking to one a few weeks ago said he paid 550 euro for trainers
@thanks for the beautiful music christy rest in pea: totally made up story
@John Mcmahon: why is it??
@6gRrQtLn: I met the same guy and he said 300 tho?
@6gRrQtLn: Because i met the same guy and he said they cost him 50 euro
@John Mcmahon: I met that guy too he said he got them for a score off @lancetaylor
@thanks for the beautiful music christy rest in pea: one doesn’t have to be poor to have refugee status…
@thanks for the beautiful music christy rest in pea:
Or the Irish welfare jockeys going around in their 550 euro goose jackets
@Colette Byrne: he told me Temu
@thanks for the beautiful music christy rest in pea: possibly dolce and gabbana at that price. A great sneaker have a pair of them. Love it.
@thanks for the beautiful music christy rest in pea: great country
@Dermot Blaine: @John Mcmahon: @thesaltyurchin, @colette…I also met the same fella, he told me he got them half price in the January sales….now ff
Drinks and a meal out once a month,entertainment once a fortnight.
Meat or chicken every two days.
Presents for friends and family.
When I was growing up this listt would have looked quite different.
Most homes had some worn furniture,and meals out,and entertainment were for the very wealthy.
Drinks were for Christmas and special occasions.
Maybe if they stopped getting hair extensions. False nail, designer clothes, cigs, drink, drugs etc etc they’d be able to afford proper breakfasts, dinners etc for their kids – the difference between the rich and the poor is the poor are wearing designer gear and the rich save their money for essentials
@Alice Munroe: sounds like a Dave Ramsey quote !
Trust me , there are good people trying there hardest and struggling to make ends meet .
Who are u to judge them and pass remarks?
Not everyone gets dealt the same hand in life you know
@kevin rock: I came from what could be described a a ‘very modest working class background’. Now Im fifty years old, own my own house, car, motorcycle. Work a four day week on a five figure salary. Overall debts are about €5000. I travel, going to see Liverpool next week. Etc. I’m for helping people, to a point. I strongly believe in self responsibility. Your responsibile for your actions, simple as. Get yourself educated, which is accessible and off you go. No effing moaning and blaming everyone else viz the government for your woes.
@If you’re: I’m from the same generation and strongly agree with you.
We’ll be slated for it but those that can least afford it pay most for it ..
@If you’re: Fair play to you, it sounds like you worked hard for what you have and I strongly commend that! Unfortunately, the same opportunities are not there today for people willing to work hard. It’s a very different landscape. Enjoy the fruits of your labour, but be not quick to scorn those beneath you on the ladder of life.
@If you’re: Ah, but the difference is that people are now working their fingers to the bone and not seeing any improvement, and not seeing any on the horizon either.
That has come about since FFG adopted Thatcherism.
If you were to start out now, you would have nothing either to show for all your effort.
@Alice Munroe: spot on, that’s happening on my street and guess who are the vocal ones.
@If you’re: what is your car and motorbike make and model?
@If you’re: House prices when you bought are a fraction of what they are now, first time buyers have no hope of getting a decent mortgage, they can be 2-3 hours away from where they work too, I’m all for helping people too but if you can’t see what has happened with poverty in this country, I can’t help you
@Alice Munroe: These are children, they have no say in how money is spent in their household. But some people are poor, I have worked with people who lived in food poverty but had what where considered good careers but they had very little disposable income after bills & free school donations where paid. They cut back on their food to feed their kids.
Think of this and the bike shed
And yet people will vote FF/FG .
These parties just dont care about ordinary people
@John Mcmahon:
It’s the parents responsibility too look after their own children
@John Deane: That’s true John but when an out of control cost of living crisis eats up all their disposable income due to the mismanagement of the countries resources, then it makes it very difficult to provide from a dwindling monthly balance.
But you knew that anyway, right?
@John Mcmahon: only because the alternative Loony Left are worse, with all of them supporting uncontrolled illegal immigration and ignoring ordinary working Irish
@John Deane: yes it is
But ur being fleeced by the banks, health insurance , supermarkets even bin collections .
Its the government thats failing ..
We pay a lot in taxes in ireland and the return is minimal at best .
Health care is third world.Even private healthcare is degrading .
Housing is in crisis
Cost of living in crisis
Government is failing .
They just dont care
@Thomas Sheridan: That “Looney Left” that did not create this situation?
While you support the Thatcherism that did.
Do look up Stockholm Syndrome.
@David Corrigan:
Sky and netflex shooting through the roof.
@John Mcmahon:
Have you ever been in a Third world country?
Ireland is one of the best counties in the world to live in.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: Like to name one or two counties run by marixest that have a better standard of living then Ireland.
@H Woo: Sky & Netflix are superfluous – children need proper clothing, food, school necessities, transport, extracurricular activities, health care and a warm comfortable home with their parents.
@H Woo: Are you really trying to deflect with that nonsense?
Which of Irelands political parties would you describe as Looney Left?
Now which have been the ones that created this mess in which we find ourselves?
Are you really trying to say that Thatcherite policy of ensuring the already obscenely wealthy get to pick even more from your pocket (while you obsess with pronouns) is making your life better.
Germany. the Nordics, France, and many others have thrived with left wing governments.
All have enjoyed a far superior quality of life to us, and to the US in particular.
@Sheelagh Hanly: thanks….I can honestly say I’m providing what you’ve listed. Meals out, weekend roasts, Sky TV and weekly paid for entertainment not so much but a cycle in the local park never hurt anyone…… I was starting to feel neglectful after reading the list in the article so thanks for bringing it back to basics!
@John Mcmahon:
No choice but to vote them in again.
Look at the opposition, run by what looks like trust fund posh kids. Local schools not good enough for their own kids. They would have nothing in common with low income people.
How about we stop subsidising wealthy Ukrainians and housing everyone who rocks up illegally? Surely those billions of OUR money should be directed towards improving our existence for once.
@Freda Peeple: How about we support a free people against a tyrant?
Some decisions should be really easy to make.
It’s like living in the 70s. But it’s 2024
@Paul Gorry: Except in the 70’s, we weren’t using our taxes to provide for any wandering Harry rocking in to our country from any other random part of the world. Varadkar said 80% of them are NOT genuine asylum seekers, yet we are paying for them. WHY DO OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS NOT ADDRESS THIS ISSUE? Simple question.
@YKwkSIqW: Calm yer kacks there bronagh. My point is about genuine Irish people getting mugged by the elected officials you speak off.
@Paul Gorry: Keep paying for random foreign dole spongers, Paul. Good lad!
@YKwkSIqW: Tool.
@Paul Gorry: Wanna meet up in person, big lad?
@YKwkSIqW: I’m awake now
@Paul Gorry: I can be outside the Foggy in 10-15 mins. Put your mits where your mouth pretends to be.
@Paul Gorry: If you don’t want to meet up, I can respect that. But explain your position calling me a tool? Based on our previous comments, what do you disagree with?
@Paul Gorry: I’ll be honest with you, pal… you’re coming across like an unintelligent soft little f00l. Correct me if I’m wrong.
@YKwkSIqW: Big lad? So the the missus confessed already.
@Paul Gorry: are you meeting up?
@Paul Gorry: Go to bed, kid. If you ever want to meet in person, let me know. If not, I won’t bother little nobodies such as you.
@YKwkSIqW: Give it a rest child. The state of ye. Honestly, i have no words.
@Paul Gorry: Explain why yo said I’m a tool. If you’re not a fighter, I won’t bully you. But at least back up your original point. Do you have an actual point, Paul?
@Paul Gorry: By the way, kid. You’re the first one throwing insults in this thread, the state of ye. Be careful when you’re throwing words around like that…. Pal
@Paul Gorry: It’s obvious you have no words, you little sap. Don’t insult people if you can’t back it up.
@YKwkSIqW: ye snorting the white stuff bronagh?
@Paul Gorry: Thursday night, 8-9pm Foggy. If you’re up for it. Don’t be afraid btw, I would never punch down.
@Paul Gorry: Meet up and chat in person. I’m actually a nice guy when you meet me : )
@Paul Gorry: I know you’ll never meet up and in fairness that’s a wise choice. I wish you the best, kid! Hope life goes very well for you!
@Paul Gorry: little cl0wn : ) : )
@YKwkSIqW: I would like to fact check what the soon to be retired Dr.Varadkar said on this occasion. It may have been electionitis making him say things that would get right wing votes. FG and its political views have caused much of the financial hardship diverting public money away from public services and into private pockets in housing, health, child care and transport. If Ireland is on life support it is because its organs have been sold off. Its water will be next.
@YKwkSIqW: you back on Grindr
Irish first holds no water when you are an EU member state. Equal rights for all of those living in each others countries. Locals here don’t seem to grasp this concept, but do seem to want to remain EU. Its the same for the nitrogen derogation. Master cherry pickers, the Irish.
@sean weir: No, but best of luck. Hope you get ploughed as is obviously your want.
@Feargal De Cantuin: Okay, where is your fact check?
@james rowan: Stop fantasizing, just go and get laid.
@Paul Gorry: Paul, you’re just like myself. What to when confronted: Lather your body in Factor 50. This way you slip out of the clutches of the stronger man.
Then run.
You scared little man hahaha.
Harris has no reason to be over there
@Shane O Mac: exactly more money down the pan for more waffle and spin
Don’t forget to pay your TV license.o and almost forgot 350 thousand for a bike shelter 750 million to rte and the working class people struggle.what a government we have
Not deprived of Ibiza and iPhone but can’t afford school furnitures! Many people should look at themselves and at their priorities before telling us they are too poor to afford anything after coming back from Spain.
@Alex: so people shouldn’t have holidays or escapism? Paying out €2000 a month on childcare with a €1500 mortgage people are entitled to expect to be able to take a holiday abroad. Like our parents before us.
@Freda Peeple: That’s not how things work. If you can’t afford it, don’t do it. Stop your blabbering.
@Freda Peeple: Do people took holidays aboard in the 80? No almost nobody did, stop making up stuff like having holiday aboard is something you need. You don’t.
@Alex: Breaks in Ireland were affordable back then.
@Freda Peeple: Freda, I need to ask, what age are you? Are you a child of the 90s /00s?. I was born in the 70s, and the only parents taking holidays back then were the really wealthy ones. The closest thing most had to a holiday were day trips around the parish. This notion of family holidays abroad or “like our parents before us,” as you claim, came to be with the advent of low-cost airlines like Easyjet and Ryanair.
@Freda Peeple: yours maybe. My dad was made redundant twice in the 1970′s. The nearest thing to a holiday we got was a week at a cousins farm helping to bring in hay, turf and feed veal calves and pigs. We enjoyed it as it was an adventure for us. Ask a young person today to do that for your food and they’d tell you to F off. Our expectations have become too high. Even if everybody had a house in the morning, money for bills and food etc, some households would be found wanting. Some people have addictions, some have psychiatric problems, some can’t cope with life and some have no idea of how to budget and make ends meet. Frequently it’s the most vulnerable, the children, who suffer the consequences.
A country of two sides of the coin, people paying out crazy money for Oasis tickets and a Government that builds a bike shed for the price of a house.
Meanwhile these parties are unchallenged when it comes to vote.
@Dominic Leleu: yes people keep voting beeps in
Rich v Poor alive and well….Ireland is such a wealthy country it’s unreal. The pubs and restaurants around me are jammed. People are literally punching the jaws off one another at the weekends to go on the sesh!
@Dan The Man: I’ve never in my life seen someone literally punch the jaw off another person. Where are you seeing this “literally” happening? Surely the Journal will “Debunk” this statement tomorrow, being the bastion of truth and justice that they are.
@YKwkSIqW: Truth is subjective
@Dan The Man: Take a look up the comments. “Bronagh” was spoiling for a fight.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: Just calling out bs.
@Thesaltyurchin: Agreed! You actually seem like a good soul. I wish you the best!
They looking after themselves and everyone else except the irish people
@Pauline Cahill: Are Irish people not entitled to social welfare or education. Do they not supply food in school for the vulnerable. So they are getting looked after to a point. They could also get a job, minimum wage is 15,euro.
In this country if you think you’re going to miss out on something, food, clothing shoes etc, do what Helen McEntee did. She realised when she was pregnant that if as a minister she availed of maternity leave and stood down as a minister it would affect her TD Pension and Ministerial Pension. She got a law passed in 48hrs, got another minister to do her job and kept her Ministerial Position, full pay and all pension entitlements while on Maternity leave. However if you are an ordinary Joe soap and give up you job to look after an elderly parent, are short 10 stamps you will be refused an old age pension and all old age benefits. I think the Helen McEntee way is the only way to go. A bill that benefits only women in the Dail and county conncillors. All other women can go swing. Abuse of power of the highest order supported by all in the Dail
@Thomas O’Donnell:
Did our posh left oppose the bill.
@H Woo: what do you think!!!
How about , just for once, focusing on policy which fixes the cause , not the effect. yet ANOTHER grant for the bottom of the graph, paid for by the middle.
@Garth P: But if we actually solved problems we wouldn’t have any left?
When did we become so bitter about helping people less well off then ourselves
@Will: Well when you see hotels car parks with Mercedes G Wagens, 5.7 litre Chevrolet Camaros, BMW SUVs with Ukrainian regs on them all over the country you start to wonder why we are paying for there accommodation and everything that goes with it, Irish people are being taken for mugs, three giant asylum seeker processing plants currently being prepared, we are also paying through the teeth for that, which will ultimately lead to our demise. Charity begins at home.
@Freda Peeple: Except we are not seeing that.
Well, I live in a so called poor Dublin hood and the parents who complain the most about cost of living are the ones whi spend hundreds in track suits and NF clothing and expensive sport shoes. Absolut madness, just imagine how smoked their brain is.
@Chris:
Same in my area, overweight swamp donkeys pushing prams with the next generation.
Quick, give the NGOs more money,
Will somebody please think of the HGO CEOs.
And a Go Full Lidl ad lol
@Fintan Pox: Just go and rob the poor box as your whole family homily have been doing for generations, pox. Less money for the sex offenders anyway. Awesome how the media finally decided to report on the systemic abuse in this country. Well done, guys/gals/whatever ye call yourselves! Claps on the backs all round!!!!! A shame the victims have lived their whole lives under this horrific shadow whilst so called media never cared less. Oh well, I guess this old travesty will take eyes off of the scandals happening today which again, media won’t actually report upon.
@Fintan Pox: so true. Social welfare recipients should be confined to grocery vouchers. Imagine the harm that is done when social welfare income funds a heroin addiction, not to say anything at all about alcohol and cigarettes. They should also be limited in the range of products that the state will fund, there’s absolutely no reason why Nutella or Coka Cola should be on a shopping list of anyone who is hard up.
@Eamonn O’Hanrahan: To the gallows with them and their Nutella!
@Eamonn O’Hanrahan: simple minded
@Darren Cooney: like your mom.
@Eamonn O’Hanrahan: So you are assuming everyone on welfare is a cigarette smoking drunken drug addict, because middle class and the elite wouldn’t carry on like that now would they eamonn.Did your mother ever teach you to think before you speak? Try it sometimes
@Bronagh:
And what did your parent’s, grand parents, great grand parents, Uncles, etc do when all this was going on around them? Did they report it to the Gardia, Arrange protests, name and shame teachers.
Or did they just keep their eyes down and go to mass every week putting money in the collection box. If they turned a blind eye to what was going on
maybe you should be apologising to the victims for your family’s lack of courage in calling it out.
But its fine as long as they can afford concert tickets
A disgrace work self and have go without sometimes for my kids. Sure at work yesterday no lunch had make sure kids fed first this doesn’t alway happenthank g lot bills came out close to each other. . Sadly this is ireland
Give more free dole to lazy dole parents to encourage them to have more out of wedlock feral criminal kids.
That’s bound to work!
Sound bite Simon has a lot to answer for.
Quick, give the NGOs more money,
Will somebody please think of the HGO CEOs
An old army coat on the bed with the springs held together with nylons and tights and of course the obligatory brown plastic shoes.
@Dan Murphy: you had a bed? We slept in a hole in the road
Anyone for bread and drippin as in back in the day,with a bit of salt,quite nice really.
@Dan Murphy: Coronary Failure Food.
@Dan Murphy: you could afford salt? We just got bread and dripping!
Relax, it’s the time of year the NGOs put it out there things are getting worse. So give us more money.
Worse figures all round than the UK, I’m surprised with that.
@Pat Barry:
Really? Welfare in the UK is a lot lower then Ireland.
@H Woo: Cost of living in the UK is a fraction of what it is here.
And they all have smartphones.
The price of cabbage these days. Scandalous I tells ya.
have your say