Delaware Judge Jan Jurden just helped to destroy the market in human souls, and for that, I am grateful. She refused to send a self-confessed child rapist to prison, letting him instead walk out the courthouse door, to begin a lengthy period of probation and treatment as a sex offender. Robert H. Richards IV, an heir to the DuPont chemical fortune, pleaded guilty to sexually abusing his 3-year-old daughter. According to press reports, he penetrated the child with his finger, a twisted and disgusting act. The allegations came to light…
Read MoreCategory: General News
New School Bus Comes with “Predator Finder”
A brief glance won’t tell you the new buses are equipped with voice-over-IP communication systems, or that they transmit data on speed, location and acceleration in real-time. The “Thumbs-Up!” thumbprint scanner, which keeps track of which kids are on the bus and whether they’re supposed to be there, is also hard to see unless you’re really pressing your face to the glass, as are the multiple interior security cameras. Slightly easier to notice is the rear-facing camera, dubbed — no joke — the “Pedophile Finder.” “I wish we could have…
Read MoreDA plans rare strategy to try to keep sex offender in Atascadero State Hospital
The San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office plans to present victims from decades-old crimes to a jury in an effort to keep a convicted sex offender with an intriguing past off the streets. But a defense attorney says ___ ___ has served his time and does not pose a threat to the public. Full Article
Read MoreOne size fits all isn’t always wise (Op-Ed)
Few public policies galvanize bipartisan political support like measures that target convicted sexual offenders. Lengthy prison sentences, registration and civil commitment for the most dangerous offenders are among the tools used to mete punishment, protect the public and serve justice. But as The Pilot’s Louis Hansen reported Sunday, Virginia’s practice of committing violent sex offenders to a lifetime on a public registry, and requiring them to jump through bureaucratic hoops long after they’ve served their prison sentences, can sometimes prove problematic. Hansen’s report on Willie Combo, an aging offender who recently…
Read MoreEditorial: This ‘answer’ for sex offenders is not right
They commit heinous sex crimes on children and women. They take online offers from children, hoping for sex. Their computers are libraries of pornography. Some decide to expose or relieve themselves in public. They are convicted of their crimes and sentenced. When they leave prison, they are forever known as sex offenders. Their crimes are despicable. There is no disputing that. But how long should they live with the label and the past, if somehow they become legal and productive contributors in their communities? Our front page today displays a…
Read MoreSex offender therapy: A battle on multiple fronts
Working with individuals with sex offense convictions is a specialized area of counseling. There are also “specialties within the specialty” when factoring in the different venues for treatment, including programs in prison, in private practice (often with those on postprison supervision or probation) and in mental institutions. The individuals within this population are generally quite different, and the dynamics are made even more complex when considering whether the offenders are adult males, adult females (yes, there are female sex offenders) or juveniles. The research on each population varies considerably. There…
Read MoreOpEd: Teens and the Sex Offender Registry – No Good Outcomes for Anyone
Last week, I hailed a taxi in Washington, D C, and asked the driver to take me to the Keck Building for a meeting with a committee of the National Research Council. The cabby recognized the address and asked if I was a scientist. I explained that I am a retired judge and that applying science and research to juvenile court could make us all safer, save taxpayer dollars and improve the futures of kids in the justice system. He said, “That makes sense but just how can that happen?”…
Read Moredeserving a chance for a pardon
A 25-year-old registered sex offender has been granted a hearing before the Nebraska Board of Pardons. This is excellent news for this young man because if he is pardoned, he will regain his civil rights and he will no longer be on the sex offender registry. According to the Omaha World-Herald article, it is unusual for a sex offender to be granted a hearing because [t]he Pardons Board rarely considers the applications of sex offenders. But board members said they are willing to listen to this one because ____ has lived an exemplary…
Read MoreLet the Burden Fit the Crime: Extending Proportionality Review to Sex Offenders
Under current due process doctrine, punitive damages awards against civil defendants are reviewed for “proportionality” with the underlying misconduct, in accordance with traditional principles of retribution in punishment. This Comment argues that the same proportionality analysis could and should be applied to review statutes imposing harsh civil restrictions on the lives of released sex offenders who have already served their criminal sentences. The argument first proceeds by way of analogy. Like punitive damages in the civil context, sex offender restrictions are (1) in tension with the principle of fair notice…
Read MoreThe Prison Industry in the United States: Big Business or a New Form of Slavery?
Human rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million – mostly Black and Hispanic – are working for various industries for a pittance. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don’t have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time,…
Read MoreGeneral Comments April 2014
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of April 2014. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
Read MoreHow to Survive Police Interrogation at Your Door ( Video)
What do you say and do when a police officer knocks on your door at home? You always have the right to remain silent. In this video is a good example of how not to answer questions. This man only uses four little words to great effect: “I don’t answer questions.” Oh, yeah, RECORD EVERYTHING. Video
Read MoreW.A.R. Press Release sent to Texas Media
Pedophile—what does it mean and when should it be used? How does one convey the proper use of a tired and overworked word to those who have the eyes and ears in the state of Texas? Women Against Registry, a national organization of wives, mothers, girlfriends, grand-mothers and other family members of registrants would like to make the media and ultimately the public aware of the effects that this misapplied term has on their families. Our families face many obstacles; Having our homes set on fire, our children beaten, signs…
Read MoreCasual cruelty to children
Children suffer when a parent goes to prison but who would expect that the suffering can be worse when that parent is released from prison? After the parent has been away from home for years, the anticipated reunion is often prohibited, even when the child was not a victim of the parent’s crime. A man who was convicted of possession of child pornography, released to a halfway house to serve out the remaining few months of his sentence, is not allowed to see his children. He is not allowed to…
Read MoreAsk Amy: Young girl is at risk during visitation with dad
DEAR AMY: I have a 6-year-old granddaughter whose parents are not together. In a couple of months, when she goes to visit her dad (my son), she may be in proximity to a man who was incarcerated for molestation. This man is the brother of my son’s girlfriend, and the two siblings live together in their parents’ home. I am very anxious about this. I plan to tell my son that it would be best for his daughter’s safety and security if he would change the visitation location. I have…
Read MoreAppellate court rejects “past as prelude” myth
In a strongly worded ruling, a federal appellate panel has ordered that a Native American man be freed from civil confinement due to evidence of his rehabilitation while in prison. Both a judge and an expert witness had downplayed this evidence, condemning the man as a future risk based on long-ago transgressions, the Fourth Circuit panel concluded. Byron Neil Antone, a 41-year-old member of the Tohono O’odham Nation of Arizona, was intoxicated when he committed a series of sexual assaults during his early adulthood. Over the course of 14 years…
Read More16-year-old commits suicide after being falsely branded a rapist by drug-dealing gang
A schoolboy hanged himself after he was falsely branded a rapist by fellow pupils after pulling out of a playground drug dealing racket, an inquest heard. Tom Acton, 16, claimed that he was bullied into taking Ecstasy, amphetamines and cocaine in between lessons – yet when his mother, Gaynor, went to see staff at the 1,700 pupil Poynton High School and Performing Arts College in Cheshire, it was alleged that they refused to do anything about it. When she withdrew the boy from school, false rumours began circulating which alleged…
Read MoreWhen Should Someone Have to Register as a Sex Offender?
Sex-offender registries, well intentioned but with some faults still being ironed out, have been around in various jurisdictions at least since 2006, when the U.S. Congress passed the Adam Walsh Act. In many jurisdictions, changes were made after college kids caught urinating outdoors were charged with indecent exposure — landing them on sex-offender registries and all the Google searches that go with it. Full Article
Read More