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The World Socialist Web Site reports
Former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship was released from prison [May 10] after serving a one year sentence in connection with the April 2010 explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia, which killed 29 coal miners. The Upper Big Branch blast was the worst US mine disaster in 40 years.
Blankenship served the first ten months of his sentence at the Taft Correctional Institution in Southern California. The facility, which houses many white collar criminals, boasts baseball diamonds and soccer fields along with tennis and racquetball courts. Blankenship was then moved to a halfway house for a month and spent the last month prior to his official release at his home in Las Vegas.
In tweets [that] Blankenship posted after his release, the millionaire coal boss showed no remorse for the deaths of 29 miners. He complained that at Taft he had to return to his room several times a day to be counted and could not choose what to watch on TV.
[...] In 2015, Blankenship was convicted on a single misdemeanor count of violating federal safety laws at the mine in Montcoal, West Virginia. The disaster occurred when a spark from a longwall machine ignited a pocket of methane gas, which, in turn, set off a massive coal dust explosion throughout the mine.
Multiple and grave safety violations occurred at the mine when Blankenship issued an order to "run coal", flouting regulations designed to prevent explosions. In an October 2005 memo to the company's deep mine superintendents, Blankenship outlined his priorities. "If any of you have been asked by your group presidents, your supervisors, engineers, or anyone else to do anything other than run coal (i.e., build overcasts, do construction jobs, or whatever), you need to ignore them and run coal", he wrote.
[...] Four investigations of the disaster found that bits on the longwall machine were broken and worn out, causing sparking. Water nozzles meant to keep the bits cool and prevent sparks were also broken. Proper ventilation to prevent the buildup of methane gas was lacking. Explosive coal dust was allowed to accumulate throughout the mine.
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(Score: 4, Informative) by Thexalon on Tuesday May 16 2017, @01:20AM (2 children)
The problem with this advice: We're talking about a criminal case, not a civil case. Which means the families don't get to decide whether the sentence is appealed, the prosecutors do. And Massey had made sure throughout his tenure as the company's CEO to grease the palms of prosecutors, judges, and politicians throughout West Virginia and MSHA, which is why he had been able to get away with his crimes for as long as he did. That he got *any* consequences for his actions is pretty close to a miracle.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Tuesday May 16 2017, @02:05AM (1 child)
Consequences? You mean 10 months in a high risk super-max prison with the worst offenders in the world? Yeah, except it wasn't. It was Club Fucking Bahamas with racquet ball courts. Racquet ball courts, does that sound white and privileged enough for you? :) His biggest complaint about his stint? "They wouldn't let me change the channel on the TV".
One month in a halfway house outside. The cruelty! <sarcasm>How did he survive!?</sarcasm>
Last month in his own luxury home in Las Vegas, where he can play poker live against other players, and have an escort visit him at night. Yep, there are some prisoners in Peru that stepped back in unison. Pepe fainted.
All of that was just a token sentence so that his conspirators, enablers, benefactors, and other cohorts didn't have their dirty laundry aired. It was impossible for him to get off, so that 1 year was the compromise.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday May 16 2017, @02:50AM
Don't get me wrong: I'm not supporting the lax sentence, I'm trying to explain it and pointing out that the miners and their families are in no way responsible for it.
I'm of the viewpoint that corporate crooks should receive sentences proportional to the damage that they caused. In the case of Massey, that's 24 homicides, which should definitely be a much longer sentence than 10 months in Club Fed. Whenever this comes up, I'm always reminded of a classic Chappelle sketch [cc.com].
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.