Hello, my name is Brandon Sutton but my friends call me Sutton (Remember that name) and I’m an inmate who is currently on work release from this Zoo called Durham County Detention Center. I’m here incarcerated on a DWI charge, my third one actually. I was fortunate enough to hire a lawyer to reduce what could’ve been a 3 to 4 year sentence down to 8 months with a few other stipulations given once I’m released. I’m contacting you because they’re others like me currently serving time in here. Non-violent/ non-accidental prone offenders who have several DWI’s but didn’t have the means to afford an attorney so they settled for a Public Defender. They put their trust and faith in the Justice System, not looking to get away scott-free but in hopes of having a reasonable judgement. The legal minimum for a 3rd time DWI offender is 120 days (especially for a non violent) but because of MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) each one of them has been given the maximum sentence of 36 months which is unfair and unjust. Once sentenced you would think they would be D.O.C but each one of these VICTIMS serve active time here in Durham County. With no drug-treatment program that allows them eligibility of early release.

Speaking of programs, there is barely any here. I spoke with a Captain Spencer, March 13th around 9pm about this issue and how they should take the Video Visitation funds and invest in educational programs for the inmates because we all know if you don’t give us something constructive to do, then we’re obviously destructive. She and the other D.O’s caught an attitude and said there is a GED program (eligible for teens to 24 yr old) that’s been here for years and successfully (and I quote) graduated 2 people!!!
To make matters worst Thelma and Louise (Spencer and other D.O) stated that this is a short term facility and people other than the ones awaiting trial don’t stay longer than 90 days! Meaning that they have no knowledge of the inmates that are 3 time DWI offenders who have to spend their years in Durham County Zoo.
This place is a mad house, majority of the staff are incompetent and unintelligent who barely have high school diplomas. And given the recent experience I’ve had with the Justice System, it is a money scam that seems racially bias (I say that because all the white offenders with the same number of DWI’s I’ve talked to have lighter sentences with the exception of one individual)

PS: I want to shoutout Ms. W. Cogdell Bell who was the first to talk to me like a human being. I ride for her, she’s my Beauty Queen.
– and WE should start a campaign against MADD.