Today in criminal justice

It appears Manafort will get credit for time served and for good behavior which will likely shorten his sentence.

— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) March 13, 2019

The simple fact is, we are more comfortable with "white-collar" crime than with non-white collar crime. And we are more comfortable with black and brown people in prison than white people. Does anyone consider Martha Stewart an ex-con, or a convicted felon? (Full disclosure: I like post-prison Martha). Of course, she's a celebrity, too; that always helps.

So we were outraged by the "wrist slap" the first judge have Manafort; but despite an hours long hearing and an implicit rejection of the idea Manafort has lived a "blame," or that he was truly contrite, this sentence is effectively shorter. The judge thought it was fair for the crime and despite the fact she didn't seem to praise Manafort. 10 years, though, is a long sentence; and the fact is, long sentences bother us less when the criminal is not white and the crime is not hard to understand. We're upset when the sentence for the rich white man is lower than anything given to the poor black man, nut our anger is not directed at that injustice. We're not angry that the system of punishment is askew, that poor people are regularly imprisoned on lengthy sentences. We're angry that one celebrity wasn't buried under the jail.  To the overall injustice of the system, we are entirely indifferent.

Aye, there's the rub.

(I should add my educated guess is that this sentence was set with an eye to appeals. Rich people can appeal their sentence; poor people can't. And again, appellate judges are more sympathetic to people who are "their kind." We all are. So ten years for Manafort's crimes may seem very long, but 10 years for stealing quarters is fixing "broken windows."  There's always an excuse.)