cont Jail time can disappear if it is not linked to a later bond
Financial actions are preserved while bodily confinement is erased
Defendants are pressured into plea deals to “resolve” record gaps
Compliance is rewarded, resistance is punished
When systems fail to reconcile their own data, the cost is transferred onto people — in time, money, fear, and silence.
Plea Deals as a Pressure Valve
Plea agreements are often framed as efficiency tools. In reality, they function as pressure valves for system errors.
When records are incomplete or contradictory, the easiest path is not correction — it is coercion. Probation, unsupervised probation, fines, and compliance requirements become substitutes for truth.
This is not justice. It is risk management.
The Punishment That Spreads Beyond the Cell
She is not just an inmate.
She is a mother of three.