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We got some context on the story when we spoke to her family today:..

Jules Vasquez reporting
On Saturday, November third, the GSU found Joslyn Cadle with this: 159 grammes, five and a half ounces of marijuana and one hundred and ninety five dollars in cash.

She admitted that the money was the proceeds from selling marijuana - and in court she pleaded guilty to drug trafficking.

Candy Cadle, Sister
"They called me and told me that "chu chu" is going to jail because she pleaded guilty. One of the police set her up to plead guilty and she is going to jail is she doesn't have $2,000 up front."

Shane Williams, Neighbor
"Whichever police told her to plead guilty for drug trafficking now - she guilty. No way in her life, she didn't probably think about $2,000 - $10,000 in her life. Chu Chu had $195.00 from what she was selling weed and the weed that she had is valued at $45. Now going into court pleading guilty - maybe they find her $500 - $1,000 she will struggle but will pay it back - but no, $10,000 for an amount of weed that cost like $45 on the street."

To understand the events that brought her to that moment, we visited her home here on Supal Street - where a number of families live crowded on a single lot.

Candy Cadle, sister
"5 of us are living at Supal Street in the house plus other relatives - it's a lot."

Today they were playing music for a funeral - as their Uncle Dennis Desho Williams was killed last week in that armed robbery at Three Star Chicken.

Death is familiar to them, Jaslyn and her siblings lost both their parents some years ago and they were left to fend for themselves.

Shane Williams, Neighbor
"Drugs is a serious thing to deal with but it's not like she choose that lifestyle - have no parents there to support her. She has to depend on her sister, so it's tough. The funny thing is that she is not even a smoker. That's her way of survival Jules so she could buy her day to day things - just survive."

But surviving in prison is something else completely. This was her first offence, her first time locked down and her sisters say she's been having a hard time coping:

Kassian Cadle, Sister of Accused
"She is not use to this. She can't take it and I want the judge to give her another chance because I don't want her to think negative and try to do anything out of order because that would be on us too."

Candy Cadle, sister
"None of us growing up did not get lock down for something - they are not holding us behind bars."

Jaslyn's sister had finished high school - and they were hoping the same for this star athlete:

Shane Williams, Neighbor
"She is one of the few who knew what she wanted to do. The difference between poor communities and rich communities is the ability to dream and most of us kids don't have that. When you are coming out your parents try their best to do something but if your mother is a janitor and your father is not in your home - what can you do with your life. We have the opportunity to dream and Chu Chu had that when she got this scholarship where she was going to Gwen Liz night school and from there she wanted to finish that and get her high school diploma and hopefully get a football scholarship to UB."

Candy Cadle, sister
"She is just into sports - she is into that from primary school. That is what she was very good at. She went all over playing football and basketball - that was what she was into."

While no one excuses her for selling marijuana.

Kassian Cadle, Sister of Accused
"I think that's a mistake that she did in life because with our situation she shouldn't have done those things but she will learn from her mistakes now and try not to make that mistake again in the future."

"I don't think she did that because of something to get rich because we wouldn't be living like this right now, so I wouldn't say that."

They also point to the fact that this is first offence and a non violent one:

Candy Cadle, sister
"I dint think it fair any at all because she just got charge for the first time and she is going to jail for just her first time. They are charging her for drug trafficking but yet it's just her first time - that is the main thing - the first time that she is getting charge for something and I just think like the court should give her another try because she didn't understand what she was getting herself into."

Kassian Cadle, Sister of Accused
"Right now she is losing her academic career. She is someone that is into the sports and so on, so all of that she is losing out from. I would want her to come back out and continue school because she made up her mind to continue and do something successful in life."

Candy Cadle, sister
"She will not want to continue. Her mind will set different."

Kassian Cadle, Sister of Accused
"Look out here; those that are doing the murders and all of that - those are the ones that are getting a second chance so why don't someone for drug trafficking get a second chance?"

Shane Williams, Neighbor
"When you go to jail - that's it for you. You are already poor and when you come out of jail that's it for you - you have a criminal record, you spend two years out, you lose your opportunity for an education - you can't get a job. What you think she will do when she comes back out 2-3 years from now - she will not be what you want her to do, she will not sell plantain. She has to survive still. she will be even more poorer 3 years remove from society."

Williams says there must be an alternative

Shane Williams, Neighbor
"Instead of sending someone to jail for that, let us sentence them for life, sentence then to community service - sentence them to a development program - force them to go to school, something like that but not jail. When they go to jail, tax payers pay for years. You know what's the cost to pay for a prisoner in jail? - Instead have them out here doing community service for a non-violent offence. Chu Chu could be coaching a primary school football team as her punishment - use your skills to be more productive than to jail her because when you jail people - we are just avoiding the real problem which is drugs. Drugs are getting more popular, it is spreading more, so obviously this is not working. We are just jailing them because we are hiding it. We don't want to tackle the real issue."

And in this neighborhood, the real issues are that they just want her home":

Voice Of Neighbor
"I feel upset about it because I think they should have given the little girl a run because Ann Marie can't not have kids for her to pressure the little girl like this. At least she should have given her a little run because it's her first time and she is going to school and we want her home by Christmas."

For balance, we note that the court did show some leniency because the penalty for drug trafficking is to be fined and confined - while Joslyn was offered the option of only having to pay a fine. But it was two thousand dollars forthwith - which she could not come up with, so she was sent to jail.

If she can't pay the full ten thousand dollar fine by the end of December, her sentence will go up to three years.

So should she have been sent to jail, or should there be some alternative sentencing? You can give us your opinion in our online poll about cases such as Joslyn's.