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 MoreCategory: General News
The 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 MoreScrutiny suspends websites’ dealings
A shadowy network of Arizona-based Internet companies that used public records to demand money from sex offenders and harass those who complained has imploded amid lawsuits, court hearings and new standards enacted by banks, social media and technology companies. The websites, including Offendex.com, SORArchives and Sexoffenderrecord.com, in November stopped seeking payments from people in exchange for removing profiles, blaming the change on “many conflicts, threats, unreasonable requests and false accusations about this website.” The move followed decisions by MasterCard, Visa, Discover and PayPal to stop processing transactions from what many…
Read MoreCompliance Checks II
There have been some long, thoughtful comments regarding Compliance Checks in the General Comments section recently. To make sure they do not get buried they are moved to this post.
Read MoreU.N. Report Declares Internet Access a Human Right
A United Nations report said Friday that disconnecting people from the internet is a human rights violation and against international law. Full Article
Read MoreSupreme Court May Take Up Va. Sex Registry Case
WASHINGTON (AP) — She was a 24-year-old swimming instructor who had a sexual affair with a male student under 16. The woman was convicted in Virginia in 1993 of unlawful sex with a teenager and served 30 days in jail. She was listed on the state’s sex offender registry, and could have tried to get her name removed at some point, but didn’t. Fifteen years later, the state passed a new law that reclassified her and thousands of others as violent sex offenders. The woman — identified in court papers…
Read MoreGeneral Gets Reprimand in Misconduct Case
FORT BRAGG, N.C., — A military judge on Thursday morning reprimanded Brig. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sinclair for mistreating his mistress and other charges, but did not sentence him to any jail time and allowed him to remain in the military. General Sinclair was also ordered to forfeit $5,000 a month in pay for four months, but will be allowed to keep his pension and other benefits. Full Article
Read MoreParents, Stop Panicking About Sexual Predators Online
In a recent New York Times profile, Danah Boyd was described by one of her colleagues at NYU as our first anthropologist “who comes from the tribe she’s studying,” meaning that the 36-year-old researcher is a digital native who grew up immersed in the same online culture as the teenagers she now studies. “Danah Boyd often dresses like her youthful subjects,” reads the caption on a photo of her wearing a fuzzy animal beanie and striped knee-highs, suggesting that Boyd is an emissary from a new and unexplored terrain. But…
Read MoreGeneral avoids sex offender list
Raleigh, N.C.— Defense attorneys said Sunday that an Army general has agreed to a plea deal that includes the dropping of sexual assault charges against him. Lawyers representing Brig. Gen. ____ ____ said he will plead to lesser charges in exchange for having the sexual assault charges dropped, along with two other counts that might have required Sinclair to register as a sex offender. Full Article
Read MoreMaking Punishment Fit the Crime
Todd R. Clear, dean of Rutgers University–Newark School of Criminal Justice, is one of the country’s leading criminologists. A former president of the American Society of Criminology, he is widely known for his advocacy of evidence-based programs. In his newest book, The Punishment Imperative: The Rise and Failure of Mass Incarceration in America, Clear notes that the U.S. stands out among Western democracies for the “relentless punitive spirit” of its three-decades long mass incarceration policies. Full Article
Read More