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[igotthisguitar]

Man serving life for stealing TV freed after 35 years in North Carolina
Sat May 28, 8:08 PM ET

HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. (AP) - After 35 years in prison for stealing a black-white television set, Junior Allen is a free man.

Allen, 65, walked out of prison Friday, ending a case that attracted widespread attention because he remained in jail while other inmates convicted of murder, rape or child molestation were released.

"I'm glad to be out," Allen told supporters outside Orange Correctional Center. "I've done too much time for what I did. I won't be truly happy until I see a sign that says I'm outside of North Carolina."

Allen was a 30-year-old migrant farm worker from Georgia with a criminal history that included burglaries and a violent assault when he sneaked into an unlocked house and stole a 19-inch black-white television worth $140 US.

Some state records say Allen roughed up the 87-year-old woman who lived there, but he was not convicted of assault.

Instead, he was sentenced in 1970 to life in prison for second-degree burglary. The penalty for the offence has since been changed to a maximum of three years in prison.

The state Parole Commission decided last year to release Allen if he behaved and completed a transitional work-release program. He worked at a restaurant washing dishes and floors and had no prison infractions during the past three years.

He did so well he was released several months early, on his 26th try at parole.

His parole could last up to five years, meaning he could gain complete freedom by age 70.

Rich Rosen, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill law professor who took up Allen's case three years ago, said it was a shame that Allen had not been released decades ago. "At least he's got some years left," Rosen said.

Once outside the prison, Allen got into a car with two friends who were driving him to Athens, Ga., where he planned to meet relatives and return home to Georgetown, Ga.

Enoch Hasberry, the programs director at Carteret Correctional Center in Newport where Allen went through work-release, said he worries Allen might not adjust well to life on the outside.

"For a black-white TV, how much do you have to pay?" Hasberry said. "We've got an in-house joke here: How much time would he have gotten if he had stolen a colour TV?"

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cpress/20050529/ca_pr_on_wo/us_television_thief

[waggo]

I bet you he wont do it again!

[Mr. Literal]

Ain't the U.S. grand?

[yoda]

I read a long time ago that it cost the taxpayer $100 grand a year to maintain a prisoner. Anybody have a trustworthy quote? If that is the case then it's cost the taxpayers about 3.5 million dollars to punish a theft of a $140.00 TV. And I realize that inflation and everything else has to be taken into account, but that just does not make sense. Double those numbers or half them and it still doesn't make sense.

Ok I found this on Google Answers:

[igotthisguitar]

>. US Private Prisons 4 Profit are a huge growth industry

[dulouz]

"Taking a TV" as description of events is a little misleading. He invaded someones space. Thats worth 30 years. That or some hemlock.

[Derrek]

Back then, a $190 black and white TV was worth more.

He also had priors-- a criminal history. That can make you get the max. For all we know, he was very disrespectful to the judge during trial. We can't judge this entire story simply on a TV.

He also assaulted the women, and this charge was likely not followed up on because stealing the TV was enough to nail him on.

[dogbert]

[new horizons]

'Enoch Hasberry, who ran the work-release programme, expressed concern that Mr Allen might not be able to adjust to life outside prison.

"He has been incarcerated so long, I'm not sure he's going to make it out there," Mr Hasberry told the News & Observer newspaper.

"I'm not sure he's going to want to stay out.

"For a black and white TV, how much do you have to pay? We've got an in-house joke here: How much time would he have gotten if he had stolen a colour TV?"'

From Monday's The Guardian

What happened to this guy was short sighted, expensive and just plain stupid. And it��s the kind of stupidity that can be found all too often in the American prison system.

[Derrek]

[new horizons]

I don��t know anything about Canada. I just know what I have seen working in the legal field in the States. As a paralegal I��ve helped with pro bono criminal work. From what I saw money (as in how much the accused has) is the single most important factor when it comes to convictions and sentencing, heck, to the bringing of charges in the first place. Race is a close second.
When it comes to legislatures and the forming of sentencing laws and guidelines, and to the building of prisons and what prisons are for, the appeal is to the emotional, not the logical. For example, there are entire wings, in some cases entire prisons, that place prisoners who have been consistent problems into isolation. They stay there for years allowed only an hour a day outside of their cells- one at a time, of course. The general consensus in the world of psychology is that this kind of extended isolation can, and often does, induce psychosis. When dealing with people who are already borderline, well, you get the picture. A lot of you are now thinking, So what. These guys earned their way into the system. And it is true. These are bad guys. But, most of these guys are not serving life. And now that they are in isolation they have no opportunity to act up, so will not be adding more time to their sentences. They are getting out. Basically, we��ve built a breeding ground for psychopaths who are then released onto an unsuspecting population.

[Derrek]