Living with 290: The Polygraph is Pure Hocus Pocus

If anyone does not know, the California Sex Offender Management Board (aka CASOMB) has phone call conferencing open to the public. Well since I’m not only a registrant but a member of the public I thought I’d conference in on their call today about the polygraph and all its wonderness and goodness fantasticness.

What I heard today was a lot of 100% USDA Ground Choice B.S. unfortunately. A lot of Orwellian Doublespeak (1984 book) also present. There were CASOMB people on the call, a few PO’s, and, you guessed it, a few people who make their living off the polygraph. I was the only registrant on the call and I was proud to be there for you. There were a lot of “hum’s” and “you knows”, and a few “pretty much sure of’s” and when I asked the hard questions, the answers were vague and wobbly, “ well you know, “we’re working on making the polygraph better and it’s a work-in-process.” In the mean time, this fallacy of fear and “community safety” they have wreaked havoc on my life, and yours too I’m sure.

Now that I can’t work because of the registry and my record on Google, can’t find a place to live in the city and now I’m in the high desert (cheap and lonely), I have lots of time to be “in search of..” the truth. At this point if my mess of 12 years ago, I now fully understand that they are living in the land of: make this stuff up so we can have jobs and make people feel safe and we can feel important and have a cause to fight for and since before this I was lost and didn’t know what I wanted to do with my psychology degree that I paid for. (a dose of sarcasm)

Some of the hard questions that I posed to them, with sincerity and polite moments of pause of course (don’t wanna come off disrespectful, right?), was one like, “So if the poly is so valid and reliable, why is it that I was told that I was “deceptive” because of my breathing? How is that that not only did I evidently “failed” this question of instance, but then now I fail the whole damn test? Or this question, if the poly is so scientifically valid, where is the evidence of such validity, and then why did the SCOTUS rule it’s not so? More hemming and hawing on that one. I was respectful, but also respectfully asking for a solid answer – more of well it’s a work in process. Really I say?

Not to downplay anyone’s source of comfort in all of life’s stuff that gets thrown at us, death, prison, dumb mistakes, cancer, lost jobs/relationships, you name it, given the long list of things like tarot cards, crystal balls, tea leaves, goat entrails, palm readings, find a penny have good luck, Friday the 13th, we need to be clear that some (I won’t choose here) but are only superstitions, and the polygraph is another. We cannot believe that it works just because some group makes up ‘science’ or some other hocus-pocus. If we don’t come to see what is real and what is not, then they (THEY) can use their magic to manipulate us into believing that their magic box works. Should I know wonder if my breathing is a concern? Do I need more “treatment” or “supervision” or or or… was it done on Friday the 13th?

Even if the poly is say, and it is so not more like only 50/50 chance, 98% valid, would you go to a dentist who is only 98% correct is his or her work? Would you fly a plane with only a 98% chance of landing safely, how about feeding your family with food that is 98% free of pesticides? If they are rating us on their crazy box, and then making decisions about me with 98% validity, I think it’s a joke then and I would fire my doctor. Also poly proponents have a big huge conflict of interest and they don’t advocate for us, they only do for the government.

We must, seriously everyone, we must be clear on what is true and not true if we are going to make it though this mess and keep our sanity. Otherwise, we’ll be like fish taking their fictitious bate with a sharp hook that well not let us goes.

If anyone has good sources to point to on this topic, please respond in kind.

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The Georgia Department of Community Supervision (DCS) has posted many one-way videos on YouTube for quite some time, all with comments disabled. Their latest video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lb0zl4xxDA has comments enabled.

I have contacted the DCS quite a few times with limited responses. Today is your chance to voice your opinion on their video as I have.

“… we protect and serve all Georgia citizens through effective and efficient offender supervision in our communities.
, while providing opportunities for successful outcomes.”

How does putting every (minus misdemeanors and minors) sex offender on a public hit list provide successful outcomes?
How do polygraphs (inadmissible in court and proven ineffective) prevent recidivism?
How does mandated therapy help at all when the goal is to keep them in therapy?
How does restricting Halloween activities and forcing offenders to congregate at a jail make society when the last reported sex crime on Halloween was in 1973?
How does a sex offense registry provide any safety when those offenders have a very low recidivism rate compared to other crimes yet those other crimes are NOT on a registry?

It seems your “successful outcomes” only means YOU have a job and just follow orders as every one of you are feeding on the fear and hysteria falsely imposed into American’s minds.

Perhaps the supporters of polygraphs should be subjected to these machines while being asked about its validity?

Courts reject it. American Psychological Association rejects it. Yet money is still invested in these things like Miss Cleo’s psychic hotline…

More often than not, a “failure” is based on an existing record (i.e., if you have drug offenses, they’ll ding you for drugs) or on the badgering presented as a pre or post interview. At times, a “failure” is the result of personal animosity or simply because the examinee is on the registry. Polygraphers are no more lie detectors than they are brain surgeons and their results are nothing more than their opinion, which can just as easily be made before an examination as after, and often is. They are simply interrogators, and the polygraph itself is nothing more than a prop (dirty little secret – those wavy lines are absolutely meaningless). The courts requiring them is just their way of indirectly bypassing the 5th Amendment. If the so-called science was sound, pre and post interviewing would not be necessary, it wouldn’t be limited to yes-or-no questions, those questions wouldn’t have to be repeated, and it wouldn’t matter if the subject believes it works.

At least in Georgia, when someone “fails”, they are ordered to take another and if that one is “passed”, no big deal. The examinee is supposedly given the benefit of the doubt (of course, if he actually had that, then why polygraph in the first place?). But yet, when two polygraphers ask the same questions and receive the same answers from the same person and come to two polar opposite conclusions, why is there no scrutiny of the polygraphers?

I recommend to everyone that “fails” a polygraph submit a formal grievance to the polygrapher’s accrediting agency (the American Polygraph Association or whatever state counterpart). I’m in the middle of that now and will post the results here and other advocacy sites when they come.

Been there, done that. After the first two, I did my research. So In subsequent poly’s, I drove them all nuts. Talked them in circles. Gave them all kind of but not really clear answers. Even during the pre & post interrogations. First the “therapist/ex probation officer” who administered the test, then my p.o. & then my actual group treatment “leader” during “class” (sarcasm). Hey, sex offenders don’t get many and usually get no privileges eased up for being good & complaint, so I really had nothing to loose.

Here’s something I’m sure you didn’t know. Whenever somebody begins a sentence with well, it means they’re lying.

Polygraphs-
Inaccurate, inconclusive, and read subjectively by a technician who gets paid for every polygraph he gives.
All the more reason to find someone being “deceitful” on their poly so that they’ll have to take another one in 3 or 6 months. More fees.
Ka-ching, Ka-ching, let the increasing polygraphy fees ring!

Lol, the only “work in progress” is that they are crooks making their living off a crooked system and have no empathy as long as they are on the “good side” of the table.

The operators of this system sometimes fit the text book description of “psychopaths” or “sociopaths” better than even violent criminals.

None of these so-called experts can tell you who you are or what the truth is. They follow books, rules, and laws written from their side of the table. They’re part of the in-crowd and everyone else is just data. Of course they want people to “successfully rehabilitate” or “reintegrate into society”. They just want to make $$$$$$$$ while you do so.

And they’ll find the money one way or another, take sides with whoever is in power, or just ride the already rolling train that everyone else rode for 3 4 or 5 terms until they get their fill.

Therapist/ex probation officer who administered my tests asked if I wanted to re-take it in order to ‘clear up’ my inconclusive answers because that means I probably failed. It would be free this time. I said I wouldn’t volunteer to take this test again even if you put $1,000 in my hand. Then I said that I’d be back again once I’m forced or threatened by probation, which of course happened eventually. I wasn’t nice to any of them. None of the offender probationers got and real privileges ever anyway. Not for being nice or for being compliant so, hey.

Same organization that endorses the Static99R scam endorses the polygraph. This is why I don’t trust CAsomb!

I had to do the poly 2 times, becuase the first time I was taking too big of breath before i answered any question, and becuase i took a deep breath my heart rate would increase (so it was a fail). But it’s a total scam since in court you can not be convicted of crime from a polygraph exam, but if you are probation they considered it a violation of probation if you didn’t pass. And for me it was $300.00 to do the required polygraph exam. When you are a convicted criminal its hard to find a good paying job.

Check out the best source for sound information: https://www.polygraph.com. We must educate ourselves and keep a sound rational mind. Don’t let them rent out your head space.

An excellent free resource, “The Lie Behind the Lie Detector” can be accessed and downloaded at antipolygraph.org. Check it out!

I know This is an older post but I had a question for the original poster if he would be so kind.

How often dose CASOMB have these calls and how would one join in? I too would love to respectively interact with this board and have a chance to ask a few hard questions of my own. I’m appalled you were alone in this and assure you if you still partisapate in these calls, you will never need to do so solo again.

For those who read this and are questioning what you are hearing here and what the authoritarian tyrant (likely accurate description of your po, therapist or God forbid polygrapher) who seemingly holds your very breath in there hands, know this:
Polygraphs are known to by all to be ineffective in telling on you.
They are however highly effective in getting people to tell on themselves. The theory being, to get you to be more truthful, they must lie to you.
Best Regards,

M
Over 20 Polygraphs taken, facts make everything (almost) more bearable.

Doug Williams on YouTube works everyime. Never failed a poly since

Polygraph
Pseudoscience and those who engage in it and administer this snakeoil that Taxpayers shoulder the burden of are charltons. I have failed the last two polygraphs I was forced to take. I have suffered from severe anxiety for most of my life and after the post traumatic stress I suffered while hiding in state prison for 25 years, the mere mention of sex with a minor or anyone instantly conjures up a nervousness that is uncontrollable, causing me to twitch and sweat and shake. Throw in questions about what I masturbate to and how often, I am a mental wreck before the exam starts. I should of passed the questions. The polygraph examiner (charlton) suggested that I needed to see a psychiatrist and get on medication that will calm me down and allow me to pass the polygraph. I asked the charlton if I heard him correctly, “Do you suggest that I get on some drugs, prescribed legally of course, that would calm me down and take these drugs before I come into the exam? And this would be an acceptable result, that you and parole will be happy that I passed the polygraph, even though I am drugged on valium or Ativan?” He said “Yes, if it is legally prescribed I think that is a good idea for you. It will calm you down and you should pass the test.” I feel as if I am stuck in some bizzarro world. Too many people are believing in this stuff and to quote our former president, these people are pushing “alternative facts.” I did a horrible thing by getting involved with under-aged prostitutes and I paid for my crimes, but when the parole board found me suitable for parole and I was released. After I returned to society I was effectively placed into a second class citizenship and I have to do far more to keep my freedom than a man who murders the same prostitutes I paid. I thank God I caused no physical harm to anyone, but I live in a world where murderers are not viewed as harshly as sex offenders, where gangsters return to the streets with no ankle monitors and they can go to parks and other places and terrify people. something isn’t right.

Looking back on the day of my polygraph, 3-13-2024…
I do believe the polygrapher can rig the polygraph if the parolee is 1 or two points away from passing. Meaning he or she is inconclusive. I’m assuming I passed one question, but was inconclusive on the other.

My questions were as follows,

Since your last polygraph, have you masturbated to thoughts of children?

Since your last polygraph, have you had any contact with children?

One of those was inconclusive. After answering all the questions, he kept me hooked up for an additional 2 to 3 minutes of silence. He is positioned to my right where I can’t see him. I’m facing a blank wall. About a minute or so, he leans over so I can see him. He said, “Just so we’re on the level, CDCR will go nuts if I give them an inconclusive”. Once he said that, more silence. Then I noticed a change in my body. My heart stopped beating fast. I was getting relaxed and that’s when he said ok we’re all done. You passed.

I’m glad I passed. I can’t complain. But looking back at my polygraphs and other parolees too, it makes me wonder if the polygrapher can rig it so the person fails. All questions are asked twice and mixed up. There are other truthful questions mixed in telling the truth, answering yes…

Are the lights on in this room?
Are you sitting down?

And then theres the truthful questions you have to lie about, answering no…

In your whole life, have you ever been really angry?
In your whole life, have you ever lied to somebody?

What is everyone’s thoughts on this? Can a polygrapher pass or fail you purposely? They do call the P.O. or the treatment provider before you take the test to see what questions should be asked. Of course, the parolee isn’t present when the call is made. They’re taking a 15 minute break before the test.