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Prison

You are eligible for a public defender the very moment you are being interrogated as a person of interest in a crime. Conditions of pretrial confinement are squarely within public defense practice.
I don't think that's quite correct. You have the right to get a lawyer and bring them with you, when you are being interrogated. And you have the right to not cooperate with interrogation unless and until you've gotten yourself a lawyer.

I think to actually get a public defender, you have to go to court, tell the court you want a lawyer, and meet the court's eligibility standard for getting a state-funded lawyer. You don't have the right to bring a public defender down to the police station in the middle of the night, to advise you on whether or not to take a state-mandated BAC test.
 
The conditions he describes are not consistent with general-population confinement. They are consistent with such special custody requirements as suicide watch.


A month to arrange pretrial release is not out of the question, especially if it's being shepherded by a public defender with a heavy case load. In general, responsive imposition of additional deprivations last as long as the conditions persist that motivated them. Punitive enhancements generally have a time limit after which the inmate goes back to general population.


No, we don't. I'm inclined to believe the essentials of his story, as they are consistent with information I've gleaned from lawyers and former inmates. However it seems embellished in places.
My youngest brother spent a total of 13 months over two stretches in Monterey County Jail, in Salinas. He used to claim he was suicidal just to get his own cell. It wasn't great, but general population in MoCo Jail is a third-world zoo. At least in solitary he could get some sleep.
 
He wasn't in prison. He was in holding at county, apparently needing to pony up $7500 to make his 10% of $75k cash bail.

The OP talking about being in prison kind of got dialed back as he clarified. Check upthread for the background.
Well county lockup sucks. Being in PA just makes it worse. That jail was built in 1855, and doesn't come across as fun on a good day:
 
I don't think that's quite correct. You have the right to get a lawyer and bring them with you, when you are being interrogated. And you have the right to not cooperate with interrogation unless and until you've gotten yourself a lawyer.

I think to actually get a public defender, you have to go to court, tell the court you want a lawyer, and meet the court's eligibility standard for getting a state-funded lawyer. You don't have the right to bring a public defender down to the police station in the middle of the night, to advise you on whether or not to take a state-mandated BAC test.
How it works is if you're not under arrest you don't have to talk to the police. Period. But the moment you are under arrest you have the right to a court-appointed attorney. This means if you are not under arrest you can walk out of the police station at any time. Keep in mind that depending on what they suspect you of doing walking out will make you look guilty, or could bump you up on the suspects list. Americans are at the mercy of the quality of law enforcement they are willing to pay for. We have decent cops where I live, but many states have low, or no standards for police conduct.

But yes, once arrested you do have the right to have your court-appointed lawyer present during questioning. The thing is you'll sit in jail a couple of weeks until you're lawyer can schedule the interrogation.
 
The conditions he describes are not consistent with general-population confinement. They are consistent with such special custody requirements as suicide watch.
I'm saying. But he hasn't uttered the words "suicide watch", so I'm wondering if he means that he was getting the suicide watch treatment "off the books" by sadistic guards. Hard to tell, and it changes the conversation considerably.
 
I don't think that's quite correct.
Indeed, you have to be arrested (and in some cases, charged) and you have to be assigned a public defender by the court. You don't have to actually go to court to do it, but you do have to file a request with them, which can be done from jail. If you have been arrested on suspicion of a crime, have exercised your right to remain silent, and are being held in custody, you can apply for and be assigned a public defender who is entitled to be present while you are being questioned. That's how it works in my county.

Conditions of pretrial confinement are very much covered under public defense practice, and this includes whether you should be confined at all. The hoy grail is to have your client released on his own recognizance, in lieu of bail. But inhuman conditions prior to trial are indeed contestable as part of the criminal case.
 
In the UK anyone remanded in to custody pending a trial is not subject to the full prison regime.
They can wear their own clothes and have items sent infrom outside and they don't have to do work, their cells are usually unlocked all day and they are allowed free association on their wing.
 
In the UK anyone remanded in to custody pending a trial is not subject to the full prison regime.
They can wear their own clothes and have items sent infrom outside and they don't have to do work, their cells are usually unlocked all day and they are allowed free association on their wing.

There's a sting in that tail.

In Australia, if someone is waiting pending a trial, they have no access to drug diversion or any other rehab programs.

When idiot magistrates set their sentence to 'time served' then they get no access to those programs.
 
There's a sting in that tail.

In Australia, if someone is waiting pending a trial, they have no access to drug diversion or any other rehab programs.

When idiot magistrates set their sentence to 'time served' then they get no access to those programs.
Does Australia not have state funded recovery programs for non prisoners?

---

Also, "time served" is not an idiotic sentence. Time spent in detention before trial absolutely should count towards the tariff.

The real sting is that people who are acquitted get no credit or reimbursement for the time they were detained.
 
Does Australia not have state funded recovery programs for non prisoners?

---

Also, "time served" is not an idiotic sentence. Time spent in detention before trial absolutely should count towards the tariff.

The real sting is that people who are acquitted get no credit or reimbursement for the time they were detained.
Yes we do, but you lose the access to the person.
 
Court-appointed lawyers only happen when you're actually in court. The state doesn't keep a lawyer on retainer for you to talk about prison conditions. Besides, if you're lodging a complaint about prison conditions, you're the plaintiff. It's the defendant that has a right to legal representation.

That said, I'm pretty sure most states have an oversight agency that investigates and litigates complaints about prison conditions. A prisoner could contact them.
If you need to complain about prison conditions and you cannot afford your own private lawyer to do so, I would think that the ACLU is the place to turn to. Unfortunately, I would also imagine that there are many other prisoners in similar situations and the ACLU doesn't have unlimited resources, so whether and how much they can actually help you may depend on the circumstances. But that's sort of what they are there for, isn't it?
 
I have no desire to contact the ACLU, what I am today, Schuylkill County Prison was the Catalyst.
You needn't worry about anything I've said, I was abused, yes, but I've already since enacted my vengeance.
I was just simply sharing my experience and asking a couple of questions
 
i would likek more details abuot what exactly he did to get a jail term.
If you mean what Bartholomew was accused of, it's in the OP: terroristic threats, for which he was incarcerated awating trial that was later forestalled by a plea agreement. The nature of the charges brought can sometimes affect conditions of pretrial confinement. Someone arrested on suspicion of sex crimes against children, for example, could be segregated for his own protection. Someone arrested for, say, assault on a police officer might not be treated well in jail (i.e., in defiance of official policy).
 
i would likek more details abuot what exactly he did to get a jail term.
He went into more detail in the follow up news article. Seemed he posted a Facebook post signing a false name, where he thought he was some kind of revolutionary leader and called for people too follow him and hang judges and stuff. He appears to have been ignored by everyone except some government security cats who are paid to take stuff like that seriously.

Seems they found him to be a harmless nut and let him go with probation after he made bail (which took him about a month). He fancies himself to be Nelson Mandela or something now.
 
I think it would actually be helpful if Bartholomew went into more detail about the prison conditions he experienced.

Was he treated this way from the beginning? Was there any indication that he was put on suicide watch? If so, why was that, etc...?
 
I think it would actually be helpful if Bartholomew went into more detail about the prison conditions he experienced.

Was he treated this way from the beginning? Was there any indication that he was put on suicide watch? If so, why was that, etc...?
(He's in a week long time-out)
 

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