On Tuesday, I began a new project for an agent. He had a 51 page list of insurance companies a certain doctor billed, and he needed me to create a spreadsheet with each insurance company billed, along with its address and phone number. Many were repeats, so I had to weed through and create a clear spreadsheet. For the remainder of the day, I went with some agents to the federal sentencing of a registered nurse who stole pain medication from patches and vials on the post-operative floor she worked on at Lawrence General Hospital. The first two hours were the lawyers and judge arguing/debating logistics of sentencing frameworks, etc. She was charged with counts of tampering, obtaining drugs through subterfuge, and false statements. The prosecution and defense argued their final statements. Then a representative from Lawrence General Hospital spoke about the harm it caused their reputation, hospital, staff, etc. Last, the defendant spoke about how sorry she was, her drug addiction, her son's death, and her rehabilitation. Finally, the judge talked about the offense and how serious penalties were called for. He imposed 54 months in federal prison, 3 year probation post-incarceration, and no monetary fine. It was really interesting to witness this whole process in action... it was sad, interesting, upsetting, unfortunate... definitely an exciting experience as a criminal justice scholar!
On Friday, I worked on the database that I had started Tuesday. At 9:45 a.m. I left with my supervisor, an employee from OEI, and a general investigator to attend a meeting with some private contractors. The meeting went on for about two hours and was basically a sharing of information that would help a potential case that OI will take over. It mainly focused on issues such as in-patient and out-patient status and the large cost differences between the two. Later in the day after we returned from lunch, I spent the rest of the afternoon working on the
database that I had done some work on earlier that morning.
Thursday, in class, we discussed readings we had done from the book “Invisible Punishment” by Marc Mauer and Meda Chesney-Lind. The book was mainly about the consequences of mass imprisonment. The reading was fine…most of the topics were about issues that I have learned and read about before; many other students expressed the same sentiments. Anyways, we had discussion as always.
I’m reaching the end of my degree here, friends…I think I’m about ready to be done! This was my second to last class, so as you can gauge by my brief comments above…a bit of senioritis is kicking in!
(Posted by M.Collins on behalf of M.Becker)
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