Click photo to read lettering on the BusSo I guess if you don't trust the professional DPW (who are, after all, at the bottom of the town pay scale) to get the job done on time-even with last minute notification, you call in the convicts.
But don't get me wrong: I believe that hard labor--chain gangs or cycling up Mt. Washington--is a good thing. And in Northampton, the Honor Court (recovering alcoholics) keeping the city clean is a great thing.
But you still have to wonder if these noble efforts by convicts could be put to better use other than sprucing up the most exclusive endeavor in recreation--golf ? (Well, #2 if you count those indoor Japanese downhill ski facilities.)
But hey, at least the Town Manager did not put them to use fixing up his humble abode on Amity Street now up for sale.
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Trial Court Community Service Program
"Our goals are to promote public safety by making participants stakeholders in the community and enrich communities by performing meaningful service." |
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(key word being "meaningful")
12 comments:
Since these convicts are doing time does this mean they are getting overtime? I know they are getting a housing allowance like our ex super. Transportation is provided and they are getting health benefits with dental. Energy costs are provided for. I guess they are perfect government employees.
Yeah, maybe they even get Evacuation Day off.
I hate to break your bubble here, Larry but these are not convicts. These are people who are working off paying fines issued by the district court or working off probation fees. They are not people from the jail.
I know this sort of blows the sensational aspect of your post and must be a huge disappointment to you but those are the facts.
What a bag of wind you are Larry. So impressed with himself. Someone who always thinks he's right and the rest of the world are the buffoons. I probably shouldn't say any more..all this talk about you feeds your over-sized ego.
Oh, and BTW - I finally decided to vote YES on the over-ride. It suddenly occurred to me that if you are so vehemently opposed to it it must be the right thing for the town of Amherst.
Signed "Proud To Be A Cowardly Anon Nitwit"
these are not convicts. These are people who are working off paying fines issued by the district court or working off probation fees
In order to HAVE fines and/or probation fees, you kinda have to be convicted of something first, don't you? And thus these ARE "convicts."
Unless, of course, Amherst is also violating the 13th Amendment....
Like President Reagan, my bubble is Teflon coated to protect against Cowardly Anon Nitwits.
No, you do not have to be convicted of something first to have to pay fines or have probation. You could be someone who is on probation with "Continued without a finding." If you successfully complete probation you are not convicted of anything.
Some folks could be paying off fines for something as simple as driving without a license, running a red light, or other small misdimeanors.
The connotation of convicts that Larry was trying to get across and that I know you know Ed, is one of a hard and fast criminal - one who is currently incarcerated in jail. I am simply pointing out that the folks on that bus are not these hard and fast criminals and neither are they incarcerated in jail.
But then again, you are as big a blowhard as Larry. The 2 of you are two peas in a pod.
Actually I was thinking Arlo Guthrie and Alice's Restaurant. This is after all The People's Republic...
Like President Reagan you are completely out of it. His senility seems to be comparable with yours.
No, you do not have to be convicted of something first to have to pay fines or have probation.
Ummm, yes, you do. Pleading guilty or whatever fancy words are used is the same thing as a conviction. The paperwork is quite clear on that.
One of the things that I never realized when I agreed to be the advisor to a student group was the amount of time I would be spending in B'Town District Court - or how many mental health issues I would be dealing with. This says an awful lot about how bad a job UMass does with Student Affairs, that says why no sane parent would send a kid here as an undergrad, but I digress....
You could be someone who is on probation with "Continued without a finding." If you successfully complete probation you are not convicted of anything.
Perhaps Prosecutor Morse might want to comment, but my understanding - and I have sat in conferences with students and their lawyers - is that it shows up on a CORI as a conviction. That you have to get it sealed just like any other conviction. That it technically IS a conviction, even though you don't go to jail.
Now there is "pretrial probation" but that is if the perp pleads to it and that, too, is recorded as a conviction.
Some folks could be paying off fines for something as simple as driving without a license, running a red light, or other small misdimeanors.
Or the "small misdimeanors" could have been aspects of far more serious incidents. Like I said, I never knew what I was going to get dragged into as the advisor of a UM RSO...
The connotation of convicts that Larry was trying to get across and that I know you know Ed, is one of a hard and fast criminal
No, I took it as slave labor. Georgia Chain Gang and the rest. And we both know that most (not all) of the folk on the chain gangs of yore were only guilty of being Black.
But then again, you are as big a blowhard as Larry.
No, I actually have a larger lung capacity.....
Continued without a finding is NOT a conviction of anything.
No, Ed, you do not know everything, even though you think you do. When a person successfully completes the probation there is NO record of anything on their CORI. It is as though it did not happen.
Sorry Ed, I know you want to win at EVERYTHING and NEVER be wrong (kinda like my 5 year old daughter) but sometimes you are just plain WRONG!!! And this is one of them.
Continued without a finding is NOT a conviction of anything... When a person successfully completes the probation there is NO record of anything on their CORI. It is as though it did not happen.
FERPA precludes me giving the facts here.
But why something that was CWIF'd (and the probation period passed without incident) be introduced at trial for a second unrelated offense?
It showed up. I don't know the difference between a BOP and CORI but it showed up.
So either the court is out to screw UMass students and is violating the law to do so, or....
Great! One more reason to keep Cherry Hill, it's a rehabilitation center for scoflaws! Fore!
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