Kat’s Blog: Polygraph Predicaments
It’s hard to believe that some states are still performing polygraphs during the pandemic. Some polygraph technicians are performing the exams unsafely, they’re also asking some peculiar questions as well.…
Critical Teaching in a Sex Crimes Course
[medium.com/@zilneyl/ - 7/5/20] It is often said that the media doesn’t tell us what to think; the media tells us what to think about. The media frames our understanding of…
Kat’s Blog: The Price of Public Shaming
Shame or being shamed is not something new to registrants or their families. Whether it’s personal feelings of shame or feelings of shame bestowed upon them by others, it’s a…
Kat’s Blog: Post Incarceration Syndrome (PICS)
Researchers at NCBI/National Institute for Biotechnology Information have suggested that Post-Incarceration Syndrome/PICS should be considered a specific sub-cluster of psycho-social problems that share or overlap symptoms with PTSD/Post Traumatic Stress…
Sex Offender Registries Are Fueling Mass Incarceration — And They Aren’t Helping Survivors
[jacobinmag.com - 6/22/20] The “sex offense legal regime,” which has developed alongside mass incarceration over the last forty years, has failed. US sex offender registries now list nearly one million…
Kat’s Blog: Talk and Text Only
For many registrants on parole, the basic flip phone” is the only type cell phone allowed by parole officers. You can make phone calls, you can send texts, but beyond…
Kat’s Blog: Applause
Applause for Tampa’s, Mr.________ and his win in two Florida courts. One guy, living as a transient on the streets of Tampa since his prison release, representing himself, stands up…
Will Sex Offense Registry Changes be Part of Criminal Justice Reform?
[medium.com/@zilneyl/ - 6/11/20] The killing of George Floyd at the hands of law enforcement has sparked outrage and mass protests across the nation. Calls for police reform have created yet…
Kat’s Blog: A National Police Registry, How Will They Like It Now?
The recent pandemic has now been overshadowed by a killing, racial protests and riots. Police Officers in this country have come under attack. A recent TV crawl indicated that “FBI…
Kat’s Blog: Polygraphs and Plethysmographs During a Pandemic
CDC Recommendations. Social distancing. Masks. Stay at home. Just like the registry and its restraints, little thought was given as to how registrants would be able to follow these guidelines.…
Kat’s Blog: More Needs to Be Done to Help Registrants Re-Integrate
Upon graduation from a Sex Offender Treatment Group, a registrant made the comment that “some of the guys in the group will never graduate, they’re always afraid they’ll break some…
Once Fallen: The murder of Mattieo Condoluci
[floridaactioncommittee.org - 5/20/'20] Many of you are aware that there was a vigilante killing in Omaha, Nebraska this past weekend, and the murderer turned himself into the police last night.…
How the “Stranger Danger” Panic of the 1980s Helped Give Rise to Mass Incarceration
[jacobinmag.com - 5/18/20] The missing-child panic began with Etan Patz. Plenty of kids had gone missing before, but Etan’s case seemed specially designed to provoke a mass hysteria. In 1979,…
Kat’s Blog: They Are Us
For many of those charged with sexual offenses, law enforcement may be the unfriendly enemy. Police have the unfortunate job of enforcing laws that dictate where we go, who we…
Kat’s Blog: The Pandemic Without Computer Access
During the coronavirus pandemic, when an individual’s virtual lifeline to the rest of the world depends on internet access, some registrants, especially many of those on parole, continue to be…
Kat’s Blog: We All Saw It Coming
Those who live their lives on the registry knew it would happen, it was only a matter of time. The pandemic strikes, those in society that are used to everyday…
Kat’s Blog: Dissenting Judges Should Be Ashamed of Themselves
A headline at LegalNews.com caught my eye, “High Court Rules Sex Offender Registration Qualifies as Punishment, Dissent Argues Registry is Administrative, Imposes Burden but No Restraint”. The case centered around…
Sex Offender Registry Requirements Leave Some Facing Stark Choices As Coronavirus Risks Grow
[theappeal.org - 4/3/20] A patchwork approach to the nation’s sex offense registry laws is leaving many of the 900,000 people on the country’s registries with a stark choice as COVID-19…