In My Own Words
Cody Seth Crawford
3-2-16
Sentencing thoughts
For court and Federal
Probation.
By Cody Crawford
Accountability is what a sentence is supposed to be about right?
Protecting the community and ensuring that new offenses are not
committed. My government and the people that work within it are
tasked with monitoring and keeping track of over 4.7 million people in
the United States who are on probation and parole at this moment,
that is 1 in 51 people {1 .(citations on last page)
As of October 2013, the U.S. had the highest incarceration rate in the
world. [2 We have systematically put just as many people behind bars
as China and Russia’s prisoner population combined. The United
States has just 4.4% of the worlds total population yet accounts for
almost a quarter of the prisoners. {1
Out of every 100,000 people in our country 698 are currently
incarcerated. To put this into perspective; other countries that have
zero tolerance policy’s on drugs like Russia and Singapore each have
455 and 220 out of 1,000 respectably. America has around 2.3 million
in prisons. {1
Countries that have almost the same amount of immigrants as a
percentage of the population like we do still don’t come close to our
numbers. Germany has just 75 inmates per 100,000 inhabitants and
Italy comes in with 85 incarcerated people per 100,000. {3
I was once included in this prisoner population; thankfully it was never
for more than one year at a time and no, I never dropped the soap.
My own life has been a very unique thing, and I cannot begin to try to
compare myself to anyone or anything. What I have is just what I can
achieve through my own hard work and true grit and some kindness
from others.
I have traveled to other countries and I speak another language. My
youth was wrought with good and horrible things that devoured my
innocence.
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I was a working kid too, had a full time job as a child actor and am still
in the screen actor’s guild. I played Michael Cunningham on the NBC
hit mini-series “DEAD BY SUNSET” filmed in 1995 when I was only 8.
I learned proper body language from acting coaches. I learned to look
people in the eyes. I had learning disabilities. I could not talk
properly until around eight years old and only after hundreds of hours
of speech therapy.
My point is that I am High Functioning Autistic, and have been trained
and raised in a way that doctors are not familiar with.
Sometimes I find my way of looking at the world is like seeing a
disorganized heap of trash; yet to the right person there might be some
good treasure left in it. I have always tried to be a positive person.
I am almost 30 years old and have multiple skills. I once owned my
own bakery business in Panama when I was 19. I am a musician who
loves to play old time music and rock, and am the lead singer and
guitarist for the Oregon State Hospital Patient Band. When I was a kid
I worked for my grandpa as a mechanics assistant working on his
dump trucks and dozers. I would mow lawns and weed gardens for
my neighbors, sometimes for free.
I lived in Panama and Costa Rica from the ages of 16-22 after being put
in the notoriously abusive and consequently shut down Academy at
Dundee Ranch, in Costa Rica.
The Academy was an abusive farce. It was owned out of Utah by
Narvin Lichfield. The guards would beat us. We were sick and
sexually abused, even raped. I was there when it was raided in May of
2003 and shut down by the Costa Rican authorities.
There is only one word to describe the programs that myself and
thousands of other U.S. citizens, minors and young adults were forced
to endure at the hands of The World Wide Association Of Specialty
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Schools And Programs; Hell. There was at one time over 25 Boot
Camp style programs around the world owned by them and their
affiliates in business TeenHelp LLC and Teen Escort Service.
The program I was sent to hurt me in many ways. It was against the
rules to make eye contact at meal time. I drank brown dirty water. We
listened to cassettes over loud speakers of re-education material like
POW’s.
It was then that I decided that the programs and people were not there
to help me. They did not care. The owner, Narvin Litchfield was
arrested. After the raid in I stayed in Costa Rica and testified to some
of the abuse that happened. The other 212 “students were shipped off
to The Tranquility Bay Jamaica WWASP program or Casa By The Sea
in Mexico. I heard a few went to Samoa. The lucky ones maybe got
to go home if their parents or the courts had a change of heart. I was
basically Court ordered there by Judge John Collins of Yamhill County
who is now the head Judge there.
I did go back to Oregon. My mom came down and got me and tried to
help me. I missed my grandparents funeral’s who had passed within 3
weeks of each other as my mom came to Costa Rica to retrieve me.
The probation officer Dana Correlli(sic) and the prosecutor Deborah
Markham spun a story straight out of “The Lord Of The Fly’s” for Judge
Collins and told him that It was me who started a riot, and even went
so far as to say I helped burn the school down. Markham made
national headlines in 2007 for prosecuting 2 7th grade school boys from
McMinnville for sex crimes with mandatory registration for “Bottom
Swatting” which is now in the same realm as twerking. She was fired
from her job in November 2008 “For personal reasons” after being
arrested for assault in Lincoln City after bloodying her husband’s nose.
Contrary to what they told Judge Collins; based on who knows what
information besides their own creativity, I had been the very first one
to start off on my way home when the commando style military cops
came into our compound. Some others came with me and we ended
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up convincing the Child Welfare woman to take us away from there in
a police truck.
The reason I am bringing up any of this is partly because of my
reaction I had to reading the presentence report done on the
government’s behalf. The report stated on page 11 that {“During an
office visit with his juvenile probation officer, the defendant became
assaultive toward probation staff, and had to be restrained by staff
until police arrived and took custody of him.}
I am unaware of any such attack as could be called an attack, I was in
court and the judge said I could go home pending a Drug test since my
lawyer said that basically I had been through a whole lot of bad in
Costa Ricca. Over the 10 days while I was on my own before my mom
got down there I had smoked a little marijuana with another kid my
age. Back in Oregon they locked me in a room, When I could not
perform in the little cup I was defensive when they rushed me with five
people. I remember the cop showing Judge Collins his pinky finger
with a band aid in court saying I had kicked his finger when he was
restraining me.
So this is how an autistic is treated in America when we mess up.
There were numerous court mistakes made in my life, while I was at
Sheridan in 2012 I was toxically and mistakenly medicated with the
wrong dose ergocalciferol(Vitamin D) for 6 months. I was given the
weekly dose daily. I had some bad headaches and a weird heartbeat
and bad back pain after the mistake.
For the past 3 years I have been stable without the aid of Psychotropic
medications. Lately as I have a family member who is fighting
Cancer. I was really taking it hard so I asked my doctor if he could
prescribe me an antidepressant.
I am doing better now.
Since 2013 I am apparently Bi-polar too! Maybe next year I will have
schizophrenia if that is in fashion. I never have lost my sense of humor!
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I work now as the OSH Library Assistant. I am the one who helps find
that one book you have been wanting to read, yet can’t remember the
name of it. I like that I have my rows of books, and all are in order
and on the computer and in my head. I have not had even one
disciplinary action against me in the entire time of my stay at OSH.
In other words I am a model incarcerated person. For one year I self
published the KIRKBRIDE UNDERGROUND and distributed it from
my old job at the OSH market. The Underground was the closest
thing to a regular newspaper written from my side of the fence. On
Google Plus the newsletters archive has been viewed almost 500,000
times.
The idea that I am a racist or a crude human being is only perpetuated
by the ones who are, in fact, lacking the understanding and civility of
modern man. I am not a racist, I love almost everyone. In the
Previous documents that have been given to the press and here in this
court room, the prosecutors have used select excerpts of a very
disturbed and at times intoxicated and mentally ill person in the
throes of a psychotic break as the determining factor of guilt in a very
serious criminal matter. The interrogation tactics used on me were
harsh, and I know to this day that they set out to force a confession.
The PRESENTENCE INVESTIGATION REPORT stated that I posted
remarks against Islam on my facebook.
{The defendant’s laptop was also seized, which revealed
the defendant posted several anti-Islam comments on his Facebook
account just prior to the arson of the victim mosque.} –page 6
I still disagree about this 100%. What I posted I still stand by to this
day, which was this;
“I hate the ji-had'st, they should go and learn what life is about!!!!
This guy on the news was a really bad guy!!! He went to the mosque right
in front of my house here in Corvallis, I even remember when he walked
by my house one time, with two guys that look like cops, I see them there
every week.
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Perhaps the government thinks that all Muslims are Jihadist?
They never mention how in police interviews I told police quote, “The
Jihadist’s are not true Muslims, Muslims are Cool.
Throughout the entire last five years since the fire happened, I have
always told everyone that I did not start the fire. I was harassed and
bullied by Detective Pool of the Corvallis PD. I was terrified.
My biggest and most painful punishment in this is not from the courts.
The social rejection I faced from my community in the very liberal
Corvallis was more than I could take. I literally felt like my world
ended when everyone thought/was told that I was responsible for
trying to destroy something they hold sacred; Freedom.
I don’t have money or a big law firm to fight the case. This resolution
is not perfect, but since I have got to move forward I will agree to the
conditions. I think that even if there had been proof that I was in
outer space when the crime happened, that I would still be here in this
court today reading this.
I would like to thank my legal team for always believing in my
innocence. I send my sincere apologies to the average Joe and Jane
who pay taxes to keep me locked away for all of the public’s safety.
23 months of combined time at Oregon State hospital billed at
$20,633 per month amounts to $474,559. This is not counting my 9
months in Federal Detention and Sheridan or the year I spent in
county Jail that is still not counting towards any sentence.
None of this was ever about someone’s religion or color of skin.
If you believe that it was, then you are blinded by ignorance and I am
sorry for you. My story is about somebody not being accepted by
certain people in society for being different in a way that is not
immediately clear or understood.
I have been mischaracterized and torn down in slanderous and
demeaning ways by the same people who claim to fight for equality
and justice for anyone who is different, as long as the difference is
visual like a skin color or a different form of dress or customs.
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I am not a religious person, in fact I am an Agnostic, which means I
don’t know if God exists or not. I hope that all people can find some
truth that works for them, if there is universal truth.
All and all it is very impressive what we all have built in our world, at
times working together to do it. Sometimes we fight each other and
rebuild. Right now I am going to set my mind and soul to rebuilding.
I will remind myself to always remain vigilante, to maintain a healthy
mental state of mind and to not forget where I have been. I
understand the struggle that many young people with Autism
Spectrum face, but I want to let them know that there is hope and that
you can overcome the obstacles and sometimes self destructive
tendencies we have. Some people will still not accept you out of fear
because you are not like them and you scare them. I hope that my
words can be remembered by Your Honor and the courts for future
reference when dealing with individuals with mental health issues and
especially for the younger generation who will have to work diligently
to ensure that the Civil Rights of Peoples with Mental Health Disorders
are not left behind as we progress as a Country and a world.
I am disturbed that the probation wants me to have someone
controlling all of my finances through an approved Payee. Even while
living at OSH and making small amounts of money I have been
deemed competent enough to handle my own finances, I feel insulted.
The best thing for me would be to learn how to live independently and
to take care of my own needs as much as possible. We need to deinstitutionalize me before it is too late.
*I do not know why my medical records have not been received, and I believe that
I may be judged harsher by the lack of supportive evidence contained in them in
support of my positive attitude and character and lack of clinical symptoms of the
course of my hospitalization.
Thank you for the court’s time you’re Honor, and for not sending me
to prison along with the 2.3 million already there.
-Sincerely,
Cody Seth Crawford
References/ Cited works for US/world Prison Population statistics
{1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States
{2 http://www.statista.com/statistics/262962/countries-with-the-most-prisoners-per-100-000-inhabitants/
{3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_incarceration_rate
Works not cited, https://www.justice.gov/uspc
http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=1764
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