Yes Dennis, there is a double standard in sentencing...

... and this is a prime example:

Drug rehab requested by judge

A mother's call to help her grown son produced a large heroin and cocaine arrest in Washington this spring and, in the long run, perhaps the help her son will use.

Tyler W. Mabrey, 25, of 202 Main St. will spend the five-year prison term he received Monday at a facility with a drug rehabilitation program if the state Department of Corrections can find room to accommodate the request by Tazewell County Circuit Judge Scott Shore.

Washington police on May 5 knew only that they were responding to a mother's report that her son was suicidal and had locked himself in the bathroom, according to a court affidavit. Mabrey's brother told them when they arrived that he had heard a thud from behind the locked door.

With the mother's permission, the officers kicked the door open and found Mabrey unconscious on the floor with several hypodermic needles around him, the records stated.

They also found $39,000 in cash bundled in $1,000 and $2,000 packets "in a manner consistent with those who sell drugs," according to the affidavit.

Among the drugs police found were two loose bags of crack cocaine, seven more sealed ones and 13 bags of a brown, rocky substance they later determined was heroin, the affidavit stated.

The officers also found drug paraphernalia and learned from tests conducted that Mabrey's clothes contained drug residue.

Mabrey pleaded guilty to possessing a controlled substance with intent to deliver after a second charge was dismissed. The Class 1 felony was punishable by four to 15 years in prison.

Mabrey's mother told police her son was unemployed and was receiving disability payments. Source

Knoxville Center for Success aka Suspension Center

Kohlrabi said...

"This was Laura Petelle's response to my email asking what was going into the Knoxville Building:"

"The BUILDING will house a new program, assuming that it's acceptable under the original program that allowed us to buy the building, which we're looking into.

This program will be "suspension respite" as well as transitional for students returning from the DoC or perhaps from other programs who need assistance in transitioning back to a regular school environment. Suspension respite accomplishes a few things.

First, students who look on suspensions as a vacation from having to go to school get a rude awakening. They STILL have to go to school, but now there's no fun at all. (In-school suspension is actually quite common -- I admit I served one myself in high school, for parking tickets of all things -- in districts that have the space to house such a program. Out of school suspensions are definitely a less-preferred option.)

Second, students who need behavioral assistance, etc., are able to get it -- suspending a kid for fighting for 10 days doesn't actually fix any underlying problems that are going on. This program will allow us to deal with underlying problems.

Third, it keeps students in the classroom and getting educated, even while they suffer the classwork and grade penalties that normally go with suspension, so while their grades suffer, we're at least keeping them from falling too far behind their classmates. (Since most students who end up suspended ARE struggling academically, and a suspension sometimes leads directly to dropping out as they decide now they'll never catch up.)

It's not intended to be a "stable" student population; it is intended to serve as an intervention and a stop-gap for those students who are in danger of expulsion, but who -- we hope -- can turn their behavior around with assistance."