Posted on 05/01/2008 5:10:55 PM PDT by buccaneer81
Man might get prison time for sharing snack cake with inmate Thursday, May 1, 2008 6:19 PM By Mary Beth Lane THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH He slept through a fire drill, had loose tobacco in his possession and didn't show up for kitchen duty.
Then Timothy E. Caudill shared a Little Debbie snack cake with another inmate at a correctional facility in southeastern Ohio. That was the last straw.
The 21-year-old was kicked out of the residential community corrections program that was a requirement of his probation. And he could go to prison.
That is absurd, said Caudill's attorney, Claire “Buzz” Ball.
“Everybody talks about prison overcrowding. My God, you have to send some guy to prison for sharing a snack?” Ball said.
Vinton County Prosecutor Timothy P. Gleeson has asked county Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Simmons to revoke Caudill's probation and put him in prison. Simmons is expected to rule soon on the request, which he considered at a hearing April 16.
The prosecutor wants Caudill put in prison for nine months. With credit for 105 days served at the SEPTA Correctional Facility, he would serve nearly six more months.
Caudill's attorney has asked the judge to keep Caudill on probation or send him to the jail in Athens County, which costs $20 a day less than a state prison. Keeping Caudill out of prison would leave cell space for a more serious offender, Ball said.
“My God, over a 50-cent cake, the state would spend $12,600 for six months,” Ball said.
Caudill received a sentence of three years' probation Oct. 1, convicted last year of breaking and entering Krazy Katie's, a bar along Rt. 93 just south of McArthur, the Vinton County seat.
He was placed in SEPTA, a community corrections residential program in Nelsonville, on Oct. 10. The 64-bed program offers drug treatment, work training and counseling, and imposes strict rules.
Caudill bought the Little Debbie from the vending machine and then knowingly shared it with a fellow inmate who was on restriction and wasn't allowed access to the vending-machine snacks, said Bob Eaton, operations manager at SEPTA. Caudill was kicked out the next day.
“Admittedly, some of the rules seem a little strange, but the guys come to us because they made bad choices,” he said.
Caudill racked up a string of about eight misdemeanor offenses before breaking into Krazy Katie's and getting his first felony conviction, and his behavior at SEPTA shows that he still doesn't follow the rules, Gleeson said.
“It's more complicated than a Little Debbie snack cake,” he said.
Caudill said he bought a Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pie to share with someone who was allowed snack privileges, but a “boy who was always messing with” Caudill and was restricted from snacks swiped part of it.
“I don't think I deserve prison time,” Caudill said. “Maybe 30 days (in jail) and extended probation.”
The probationer lives next door to his family and works at Standard Hardware in downtown McArthur, bagging livestock feed, loading trucks and waiting on customers. He has been free on $10,000 bond since a court appearance Jan. 23.
His stepmother, Judy, wishes he could return to finish the SEPTA program. She said she saw a difference in him after his time in the program.
“I don't think someone should have to go to prison for something so small,” Mrs. Caudill said. “ He's basically a good kid. He's turning his life around, and he's trying.”
mlane@dispatch.com
The correctional facility he is in is costing something now.
And most bureacrats don’t want to lose their funding by sending their wards to prison. Unless there is some incentive I’m missing, they don’t have a reason to send him to prison, unless he is a problem.
I've been to jail twice. I believe it could very well be about the cake (as an excuse for a wound-too-tight "public servant" to exercise his "authority.")
How about leave them alone?
He's already out. He did his time at the half-way house. So he's going to cost me and everyone else in Ohio if the idiot prosecutor gets his way.
The guy's lucky he got the opportunity to go to a community program. By rights, with his record as a repeat offender, his butt should be in prison. He's shown that he won't follow the rules, so why should he be given any more chances? He's a slug.
So how much money has been wasted with all the arrests, court costs, etc. for this guy's repetitive law breaking? Maybe spending some time in a jail cell would do him some good and save money in the long run. He's playing the system. 8 misdemeanors? I wonder how many were felonies that he pled down.
Then you pay for it. I have to, because I live in Ohio. But if you're so law and order over sharing a snack cake, let's see you write a check.
I spent 23 years dealing with morons like this. Repeat offenders who were given breaks time and again, only to go out and commit another crime. You have no idea how much money is wasted by pussy-footing around with them. They don’t appreciate a break. They look at it as a sign of weakness. They manipulate the system and you pay. You’ll pay one way or the other. If it isn’t for incarceration of this boob, it’ll be for his playing the system. Hell, they’ve probably spent more money for his 8 misdemeanors and felony conviction than it would cost to put him away for six months.
If he had assaulted someone, or committed a theft in the facility, sure, toss him in the slam. But this is over a Little Debbie snack cake. That he paid for. A sense of proportion needs to be employed here.
Seinfeld would have had a field day with this storyline.
He sounds like a slacker who has always tried to live with his toes over the line and is trying to goof off and not follow the program. Maybe a taste of REAL prison will slap some sense back into him.
Straw - Camel. This was not the only violation - It just happened to be the last.
Not showing up for work duty, etc.
When you house ex-cons in a halfway house you give an inch they take a mile.
Follow the rules or out you go there are others to take your place who are glad to follow rules.
If he had somewhere else to go he wouldn’t be going back but apparently no one will have him.
If you want to have cheaper minimum security confinement, then that confinement has to have rules. Breaking the rules has to have consequences. Taking a stand on Mr. Snack Cake will likely save hundreds of thousands of dollars. How? By fixing the system. Minimum security is for those who are with the program and who want to cooperate. This guy thinks its all a big joke.
The law won't allow putting him in the stocks, so bumping up his accommodations to real prison is the next best thing.
I'm sure the others get the message, even if this dim bulb doesn't.
Maybe all of them. Maybe none of them. If they let him plead 8 felonies down to misdemeanors, they want 9 months of jail time over what's described in this article there's way more wrong here than one guy with some discipline problems.
The criminals you mean?
Are you a parent? If so, how has that philosophy worked out for you?
LOL. Oh, well. Still, I think one of my neighbor ladies has a name like that. She's got her pickup truck, trailer for the motorcycle, and a nice flat-top haircut. She's a nice person, though.
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