Chisago County Attorney Janet Reiter Prosecutes Underage Drinkers as

County Wastes Your Money Jailing Teens
Chisago County Attorney Janet Reiter

Prosecutes Underage Drinkers

asDrug Dealers Go Free
Opinion and Political Commentary by Jonathan P. Glassel

We live in a jail happy society. We focus on punishment as a some sort of perverted means of prevention.

In reality, we punish only ourselves and our kids.

One in one hundred American males and one in fifteen black men are in jail or prison at a staggering cost to taxpayers.

To assure their own reelection, Sheriffs, Prosecuting Attorneys and Judges justify their own existence by filling jails and prisons with less than evil, non violent people, at your expense.

Chisago County Attorney Janet Reiter specializes in jailing underage drinkers.

We are being asked to fund a Forty Million Dollar jail to house teenagers for “Minor Consumption” and other petty “crimes”.

In this day and age, a rich kid is one whose parents are still involved in their life after the age of 18.

Rich kids don’t go to jail, but poor kids do, with alarming regularity.

Jamie (not her real name) is a pretty, petite and intelligent young lady. Someone you would be proud to have as a granddaughter.

She is ninety five pounds (soaking wet) of pure “public menace,” recently sentenced to ten days in the Chisago County Jail by Judge Swenson for underage consumption of alcohol.

Rita (not her real name) is tall, slender and could have been a fashion model in another life. Rita ran afoul of the local authorities and moved to California, got a job and began to get her young life in order, only to be extradited back to Chisago County by County Attorney Janet Reiter, where she spent the next forty two days in our jail, at your expense.

Jamie’s boyfriend, Todd (not his real name), keenly aware that Judge Swenson lost a son to a drunken driver, has decided to waive his right to a public defender, take the prosecutor’s deal and spend the next thirty days in Stillwater Jail at the expense of Chisago County taxpayers. By entering a guilty plea, Todd has been allowed to choose Stillwater jail. His friends tell him the food and other conditions are much better there.

Butch (not his real name) has been in jail for nearly fifty days. Butch was at his own “going away” party before joining the Marines. Another young man started a fight. Butch lost control and beat the snot out of this kid.

Butch’s Public Defender and the Prosecuting Attorney want to get him out of jail and into the military. The County Attorney is willing to drop the charges, but Judge Swenson refuses and the young man is led out of the courtroom in handcuffs and chains.

Ages 18 to 21 are trying times for young adults. Old enough to vote, but too young to drink. Responsible for their own actions but often unable to comprehend the ramifications of those actions. Seeking equality and fairness, but jailed for drinking alcohol while drug dealers operate in full view of authorities.

As Jamie and Todd nervously await their fate, a lawyer in an $1,800 designer suit and $500 shoes enters the court room. A short time later, a 55 year old man, 6’ 5” tall, weighing some 350 pounds, handcuffed and dressed in prison orange fatigues is escorted into the courtroom by Sheriff’s Deputies to be arraigned on felony possession of narcotics.

The prisoner is cool, collected and unconcerned. He is not a user. He has been here before. He is a drug dealer.

Judge Swenson does not recognize the well dressed lawyer, but immediately recognizes the name of the firm the lawyer represents. Judge Swenson’s sour demeanor changes abruptly. The Court reporter stops typing as Judge Swenson and the drug dealer’s lawyer embark upon a witty and chatty conversation lasting 3 to 4 minutes. The pleasantries over, the arraignment continues.

The confiscated dope will be sent to BCA (Bureau of Criminal Apprehension) to be analyzed and weighed to determine, if, in fact, it is dope at all and if the quantity in possession results in felony or misdemeanor charges filed against the drug dealer.

Mere formalities as the deal has already been cut. County Attorney Reiter and her staff are completely out classed and ill suited to challenge the drug dealer’s $500 dollar per hour lawyer.

The drug dealer is too smart and self assured to have been caught with a felony amount of dope.

In a day or two, he will cop to a misdemeanor possession charge and walk.

Mercifully, Jamie and Todd are absorbed in their own thoughts and problems and do not grasp the significance of what has just happened.

Todd will go to jail, the drug dealer will walk, Judge Swenson will get his stock tip, Reiter’s Staff will “high five” and celebrate Todd’s conviction while you scrimp and save to pay for it all through your taxes, while your kids get hooked on drugs.

And the wheels of injustice continue to turn in Chisago County.