Judge Lois G. Forer addresses the problem of unequal justice in Money and Justice, who owns the Courts? "If the courts are not available equally to all, then the fundamental basis or our jural society is seriously flawed" (LF, 14). Commenting further, the author suggests that "Justice cannot be classified with food and shelter as a necessary of life. The vast majority of people in the world today and almost all people throughout history have been denied what Americans consider justice and due

The method that Harris County has devised for indigent defense is unquestionably awash with problems of its own. There are two main encumbrances to sufficient legal defense for the poor. One is the procedure the public defenders secure assignment to the case of the accused. The second is veiled coercion from the judges to plea-bargain the case. The practice of frequent plea-bargaining helps tremendously to keep the Judge's overloaded docket clear. The Judge him/herself faces political pressure, knowing that they must run for reelection, not clearing cases of 'criminals' leaves them prey to opponents vicious campaign attacks. These agendas integrate, and intertwine into a dysfunctional policy, that feed off one another.

Holmes comments could be viewed as near ridiculous when we examine the disparity of the sentence received on the 1,800 cases of first time cocaine possession. Taking into account the only variable between the 1800 cocaine cases being the capacity to pay an attorney, Holmes comments move from ridiculous to prejudicial.

A public defender in Harris County must race up the court house steps early in the morning, and hope the judge likes him/her sufficiently to assign him/her a few cases that day, for which the public defender is paid $130.00. If perchance, the public defender were to gain a reputation for taking the assigned cases to trial (thus tying up the docket), the judge would may or may not appoint any more cases to that attorney.

On Sunday, October 17, 1999, the Houston Chronicle published an article titled 'Defendants' Jail Likelihood often matter of Money'. In the article, the Harris County court system was labeled as a 'conviction machine'. The author of the article, Bob Sablatura researched the court records from 1996, the last year available. He found that of the defendants that relied on court appointed attorneys, 58% were sentenced to jail or prison, in contrast to the 29% that were sentenced to incarceration that were represented by hired attorneys.

Holmes perception and belief system are not unique or suprising. Sociologist William Chambliss observed two groups of high school students in 'Hannibal High School', Chambliss indexed one group as the 'Saints', which consisted of 'promising, white, upper-class young men'; and the other group the 'Roughnecks', whi

Some common words found in the essay are:
Harris County, Willard Gaylin, Houston Chronicle, School' Chambliss, Pacific Islander, Money Justice, John Holmes, Dan Gerson, Bob Sablatura, JUSTICE COMMODITY, harris county, court appointed, houston chronicle, public defenders, court appointed attorneys, social class, court system, appointed attorneys, minority population, defense system, public defender, county court system, harris county court, combined minority population,
Approximate Word count = 1575
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)