Source: thenation.com 10/14/23
No one wants a person convicted of a sex offense in their neighborhood. So New York keeps them in prison long past their release dates.
Jory Smith was supposed to be free. His sentence had been up for five days on August 28, 2020, when officers at Marcy Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison in upstate New York where Smith had spent almost five years, summoned him to a conference room.
But instead of releasing him, they said they were taking him to another prison.
Confused, Smith asked where and why. Prison staff wouldn’t say, and they “threatened to ‘lose his property’ if he asked again,” Smith alleged in a legal complaint. A three-hour drive later, Smith found himself at Fishkill Correctional Facility in the Hudson Valley, where officers booked him, processed him, and sent him to a general population unit. He’s still there, three years after his latest possible release date.
“The idea that the end of the sentence doesn’t mean anything, that it doesn’t even lead to any change in your circumstance, is pretty unbelievable.
That’s because the registry is the REAL prison sentence.
Today it’s registrants, but who will be impacted next if these practices are allowed to continue. No human being should be behind bars for not having a place to live due to residency restrictions. This practice isn’t freedom for anybody especially for us who want to be free from supporters of these laws.
Unbelievable. These guys need to file federal Habeas Corpus and then sue for unlawful incarceration. If you’ve served your maximum sentence you MUST be released from confinement whether you have a place to go or not.
There also needs to be a lawsuit filed against the state to abolish the laws that allow this because its unconstitutional.