The news has recently highlighted a number of cases of Australians in foreign prisons. There has been the Shappelle Corby thing, the case of the beautiful model with the ecstasy tablets, the Bali 9 the Van Ngyuen fellow and possibly most famously David Hicks.This site is normally humorous and light hearted but please take a moment to consider the plights of these people, guilty or not who must endure the prison systems and conditions of the countries they have been incarcerated in.
And also please take a moment to consider the many Australians who have been incarcerated into one of the most brutal prison systems in the world - the US.
Two poor fools are Luke Carrol and Anthony Prince. Their sentence is below and the full transcript is here.
softener 2005
TWO AUSTRALIANS SENTENCED FOR ARMED ROBBERY OF VAIL BANK 
Bill Leone, United States Attorney for the District of Colorado, and Richard C. Powers, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of InvestigationÂ’s Denver Office, announced that LUKE CARROLL, age 19, a citizen of Australia, and ANTHONY PRINCE, age 20, and dual citizen of New Zealand and Australia, were sentenced today to federal prison terms by U.S. District Court Judge Phillip Figa for the March 21, 2005 armed bank robbery of the Weststar Bank in Vail Colorado.
LUKE CARROLL was sentenced by Judge Figa to serve 60 months in federal prison. ANTHONY PRINCE was sentenced by Judge Figa to serve 54 months in federal prison. Both defendants were ordered to pay restitution totaling $21,657.78, which represents the funds not yet recovered from the bank robbery.
The US system is cruel and particularly so for non-Americans. Expect the worst if you ever get arrested there. Even just for a night.
Some lobby groups sites are listed below. If you are motivated also write to your local politician and protest Australians in American prisons.
You can learn more about this issue from Donny the Punk who seems to have been the guy who took the word punk from prison to CBGBs in the late 70's. Do you know your punk etymology?
Ahh, the seventies... !
No comments:
Post a Comment