The Old "Phony Release Order" Bit

The Smoking Gun reports on an Indiana inmate who created phony bail orders in a bid for early release; ironically, the underlying criminal charge was forgery.  An Arkansas inmate succeeded with the same trick, as did a computer-savvy Rhode Island prisoner.  It works in India too.  And a judge and other officials in New Jersey pulled a similar stunt to help an inmate attend his father's funeral.   But in my former home town of Cincinnati, we don't put up with that stuff; Maryland authorities also saw through a similar ruse.

Is it just me or is the frequency of this litigation strategy surprising?  Thankfully, a California case makes clear that this sort of thing is illegal. See People v. Gaul-Alexander, 38 Cal.Rptr.2d 176 (Cal.App. 5 Dist.,1995).

Jack Chin