Birdsong's Law Blog

Our Criminal Law class visitor of August 29, 2008, Judge O.H. Eaton, provided Birdsong the following Florida information to consider when we discuss crime and punishment.

Thanks Judge.

Department of Corrections Information Sheet

FY 2006-2007

http://www.dc.state.fl.us

1.) Florida has the third largest prison system in the United States, having passed New York in

prison population in 2003. Only Texas and California have larger prison populations.

2.) Florida has 60 major correctional institutions, 40 work camps located adjacent to major

correctional institutions and stand alone work/forestry camps, 30 community correction centers

(work release), 1 treatment center, and 5 road prisons for a total of 137 State correctional facilities.

3.) The total inmate prison population on June 30, 2007 was 92,777. That number represents

an increase of 15,428 in the past five years.

Birdsong has learned that a federal Judge in Nevada has ordered three college students to cancel a presentation at a computer hackers’ conference showing security flaws in the automated fare system used by Boston’s subway.  A U.S. Court judge issued a temporary restraining order,

Recently, two prosecutors in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office were suspended after an internal investigtion showed  they were never admitted to the New York State Bar.

Damani Sims and Charles Coleman both passed the written portion of the bar exam but did not follow through on the final step for bar admittance.  Sims had worked for the D.A for only a year.  Coleman had worked in the office three years.  Both of the lawyers will be welcome back at their jobs when

Birdsong often trolls the wire services for weird, but true, criminal law stories in the news.  Here are a few more – enjoy:

St. Petersburg, FL: Police Detective William Burris was recently suspended from the force for 45 days.  Why? He was suspended after often filing for overtime after his regular shift.  During the overtime he sat around the office viewing porn on a city owned computer.

He probably couldn’t get his viewing done during his regular eight hours, huh?

Mississippi: Death by idiocy.

A Mississippi man, Robert Davis, was fatally burned after breaking into a bar.

Welcome to Barry U Criminal Law students.  We will learn about the Common Law crimes and learn about professionalism.  You need to know about these things to pass the bar.

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