For a man who has been arrested nine times — with four since April 2018 — it would be sufficient for a Bond Court judge to properly assess risk and make an informed determination weighing all options across an even slate.

But nothing like that took place on June 15 following the arrest and rearrest of Jovon Tamar Fordham, a twenty-one-year-old local with a criminal record stretching back to 2016 when he was first arrested for Simple Possession of Marijuana.

Mr. Fordham was firstly incarcerated at the Al Cannon Detention Center on two fresh drug charges — Manufacturing or Distribution of Cocaine Base and Simple Possession of Marijuana — and was let go on personal recognizance bond the following day by Magistrate John C. Kenney of the Centralized Bond Hearing Court.

One of the issues with this is centered around three bench warrants for charges earned in 2018: Possession with the Intent to Distribute (PWID) Marijuana, Failure to Stop for a Blue Light, and Manufacturing or Distribution of Ice, Crank or Crack. The warrants were fulfilled with a second arrest less than two hours after his release from jail.

And Mr. Fordham’s criminal record has a trail of drugs and weapons offenses including a guilty plea for a December 2016 Manufacturing or Distributing Cocaine Base charge — the same offense he was most recently booked on.

This piece happens to be Charleston Jail Watch’s nearly fiftieth web article. And our court system is still broken, and criminals — violent and nonviolent — are consistently provided immunity for no reason other than to scurry along past the heart of Charleston’s jail problem.

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