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 hurt that stays with each of us. Perhaps that’s why it’s so disturbing to see the increase in “mask-shaming” when we turn on the news. In the past few days, the events at a coffee shop and a retail grocer have garnered the public’s attention. People being publicly shamed and videoed for not wearing masks in stores during the pandemic…
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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 Disorder. PICS symptoms are specific to those incarcerated and those recently released from incarceration. For registrants diagnosed with PICS, cluster symptoms seem magnified due to not being able to fully reintegrate back into society because of registry constraints. According to the NCBI, reported PICS cluster symptoms are characterized by “institutional personality traits, social-sensory disorientation and alienation”. Those incarcerated are controlled,…
Read MoreSex 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 people. Federal, state, and local ordinances prohibit convicted sex offenders from living within a certain distance of schools, parks, day care centers, and other spaces where children might congregate. In places like Miami–Dade County, these restrictions have rendered hundreds of individuals effectively homeless. Only by building and inhabiting makeshift encampments in sparsely populated areas can offenders comply with such residency…
Read MoreKat’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 that, you are relegated to the dinosaur age. Internet access is for bidden. Recently a registrant on parole needed a new phone, his trusty old “flip phone” no longer held a charge. It wasn’t surprising to later find that batteries for that model phone were no longer available. (Not a big market for “flip phones” these days.) The registrant casually…
Read MoreKat’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 against the state of Florida and has managed to mystify them with the flaws in their laws. I won’t dwell on Mr. _______ offenses; you can read the full story on this website. He did his time, spent 12 years in prison for his convicted sexual offenses. When he was released from prison, the state of Florida assumed he would…
Read MoreWill 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 another divide among the American public. As we move toward what will likely be significant changes to the criminal justice system, will individuals on the sex offense registry be included in those reforms? Why So Many Laws? Throughout history the level of outrage associated with various types of criminals has changed, yet the moral disgust directed at sex offenses and…
Read MoreKat’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 fears violent elements are scouting ways to attack police officers at their homes.” A news reporter’s story went into more depth adding that police home addresses were possibly being obtained through public records or other information readily available on the internet. I can’t help but wonder, how do they like it now? A title of police officer, a label that…
Read MoreKat’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. Masks, anything that alters or changes appearance are a no-no for registrants. Registering in person was an obligation. Polygraphs, plethysmographs weren’t optional. For safety’s sake, no one could register cars or apply for other licenses in person. For safety’s sake, we couldn’t do the million and one things that we usually did in person, every day. And yet, advocates for…
Read MoreKat’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 registry law, they seldom leave their homes or motel rooms. Most of them can’t find jobs, their PO’s “safety Plan” is for them to do their grocery shopping at 4AM. Every day for them is like “Ground Hog Day”, exactly the same, it never changes. What kind of life is that? Shouldn’t someone be doing more to help these guys…
Read MoreOnce 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. The Omaha media, particularly the World-Herald, has all but canonized the murderer, making him a sympathetic character, while the registrant he killed was not a sympathetic character. This has led to an outpouring of support for the murderer. See https://www.omaha.com/news/crime/ex-wife-omaha-man-arrested-in-killing-of-registered-sex-offender-fearful-man-would-offend/article_ca281537-18e6-5e9f-8bd6-3cee4499b939.html But, no matter the backstory between the two individuals, the fact remains that this was an act of pre-meditated murder…
Read MoreHow 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, the six-year-old boy’s mother arranged for him to walk to the school bus stop on his own. She watched him depart from her Manhattan fire escape. Another mother was waiting two blocks away in an apartment overlooking the bus stop site, but Etan never arrived. The tragedy was and remains impossible to comprehend. His first time walking to the bus…
Read MoreKat’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 see, what we do. They search our homes, ask invasive questions, make our lives and those of our family down-right miserable. The very sight of blue uniforms and police cars can drive up our blood pressure and make us second-guess our actions. While police are not necessarily the law makers, they are the enforcers and often the object and target…
Read MoreKat’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 denied computer/internet access. While the pandemic affects everyone, with businesses closed, when even our physicians don’t want us coming to their office, many registrants on parole are without computer access, a technology that has become a basic function and a necessity for daily living. Now more than ever, we must be online to keep in touch with loved ones, order…
Read MoreKat’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 freedoms, suddenly forced to quarantine, out of work, told they may be under restrictions for a month, maybe two, at the most three before life returns to normal. Everyone jumps on board, eager to do their part to contain “the danger” looming outside their door. A few short weeks later we’re advised that this all may take longer, much longer…
Read MoreKat’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 a Maryland man who had been charged with and pled guilty to human trafficking in 2015. Upon his release from prison, according to the Court of Appeals ruling, the Maryland Sex Offender Registry had “wrongly” added the man’s name to the registry, requiring him to register as a “sex offender”. Under his plea agreement, the charge of trafficking of a…
Read MoreSex 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 sweeps the country: risk their lives or risk their freedom. This week, a California man had to decide between putting his and his 65-year-old parents’ health at risk or potentially going to prison. Another is already in violation of his state’s law because he spent more than three days in the hospital with his pregnant spouse without first appearing at…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: We’re All in This Together, Or Are We?
Several news articles this week about Tampa Catholic Charities setting up a 100- tent homeless shelter called Hillsboro Hope, brought to mind the old biblical line “what so ever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me.” Society has always excluded registrants from most homeless shelters. Even during our country’s worst episodes of floods, earthquakes, triple digit and freezing temperatures, registrants have been left to fend for themselves. So, is it any wonder that once again, registrants are being denied the same basic necessities of…
Read MoreAttorney General Barr Memo Excludes Release of Registrants
[ACSOL] It’s just come to my attention that Attorney General Barr recently issued a memorandum purporting to address the problem of COVID-19 for federal prisons, by recommending consideration of release from federal prison to home confinement. In the federal system there is a regular program allowing many prisoners to be released near the end of their sentence to “halfway houses”, which are run by private contractors. Many in halfway houses are then released fairly quickly from those settings to home confinement, especially if they have found employment. While in home confinement, they are supervised…
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