Ties That Bind

This is a dinner conversation my family had a while back.


Mom: Mr. Tsu’s son will leave prison soon. It’s been 20 years.

Me: Who’s Mr. Tsu?

Mom: Mr. Tsu was a manager at Sing Sing supermarket.

From what people tell me, he was also drug trafficking behind the scenes. It doesn’t surprise me because he got rich overnight.

Eventually the police caught him, but for some odd reason, Mr. Tsu didn’t go to jail. Instead, Mr. Tsu’s son went to jail.

People say Mr. Tsu coerced his son into accepting the responsibilities of his crime by convincing him that, as a 17 year old, he would be tried as a juvenile. And since his son already had a criminal record, it was easy to convince the authorities of his son’s guilt.

The plan did not go well. For whatever reason, the trial was delayed for a long time, and by the time Tsu’s son went to court, he was older than 18, and was tried as an adult. Mr. Tsu’s son was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Me: What? That’s unbelievable…for a parent to do such a thing…

Mom: That’s what people tell me. Maybe his 20 years was for something much more serious. I don’t know for sure.

Me: So Tsu’s son is almost 40 years old now? What will he do when he leaves prison? He’s got no future!

Mom: When Tsu’s son leaves prison, he’ll be rich. Mr. Tsu never stopped his illegal businesses. Now that Mr. Tsu is rich, he will hand over everything to his son. Family is family.

Mr. Tsu got lucky though. If he were arrested a second time and the police seized his assets, his son would have nothing. He did a very risky thing.

Me: Do you know Mr. Tsu?

Mom: Yes. He was our landlord at one time.

So what can people do to get a 20-year sentence? Or maybe Tsu's son was in jail for 20 years on multiple sentences?