A fear-mongering news report from Omaha’s KETV talks about sex offenders who go missing. According to Nebraska’s sex offender registry, there are more than 900 convicted offenders living in Douglas County alone. Chris White, a deputy U.S. marshal with the Metro Area Fugitive Task Force, said about 90 of those convicted offenders are hiding. “There are more people absconding every day. That number compiles [sic] unless we get after it,” White said. A multi-agency task force tracks down the missing sex offenders. “I assume that they’re reoffending, that they’re dropping off…
Read MoreCategory: General News
Supreme Court ruling expands police authority in home searches
WASHINGTON — Police officers may enter and search a home without a warrant as long as one occupant consents, even if another resident has previously objected, the Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in a Los Angeles case. The 6-3 ruling, triggered by a Los Angeles Police Department arrest in 2009, gives authorities more leeway to search homes without obtaining a warrant, even when there is no emergency. Full Article
Read MoreClandestine websites fuel ‘alarming’ increase in child porn
WASHINGTON — Often, as the homemade videos begin streaming across the computer screen, unwitting children appear holding homemade placards bearing the pseudonyms of the macabre films’ makers. The makeshift message boards represent claims of credit for the ghastly images that follow: children, some pleading for help, being sexually abused in torturous ways by parents, relatives or others. Among the worst: infants used as toys for the videographers’ and viewers’ sexual gratification. Full Article
Read MoreCapitol Punishment: The Troubling Consequences of Federal Child Pornography Laws
Until Dec. 11, 2013, Jesse Ryan Loskarn was a popular chief of staff for a Tennessee senator. But on that winter day, police broke down the door of his rowhouse in southeast Washington, D.C., and searched for the illegal digital items that had led them there: explicit videos of boys posing nude and engaging in sexual acts. On Thursday, Jan. 23, 2014, Ryan was found dead in his basement. On Monday, Jan. 27, 2014, there was a twist. Ryan’s mother posted his suicide note online, revealing the great complexity to…
Read MoreTask Force on Restoration of Rights and Status after Conviction (Survey)
NACDL (National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers) is in the midst of a major study that will lead to a report issued in 2014 on the countless ways in which a person’s rights, ability to work, and the like, are affected by a criminal conviction. As part of this effort, NACDL needs your help. If you are interested in sharing your story of lost rights and privileges resulting from a plea or guilty verdict, please complete survey. Before we would take your story public, someone on our staff will contact…
Read MoreThe Public Flaw in Megan’s Law
What illegal behavior is part of your past? Speeding? Underage drinking? Leaving a store with an item you didn’t pay for? If you got caught, were you punished by a state-run website listing your offense and notifying others where you lived? Probably not. But what if those were your punishments? Would they have stopped your objectionable behavior in the future? Probably not. Because public humiliation generally doesn’t work as a method of behavior modification. And that’s why Megan’s Law, which requires authorities to notify communities of the whereabouts of sex offenders, is a bad…
Read MoreSexual Predators Online
Myth #4: Social media put teens at great risk from sexual predators. In a nationwide survey, boyd and her colleagues found that 93 percent of parents were concerned that their child might meet a stranger online who would hurt them, while only one percent of them indicated that any of their own children had ever had such an experience. By far the biggest fear expressed by parents was of “sexual predators,” “child molesters,” “pedophiles,” and “sex offenders” who might contact their child through their online participation. This mirrors the fears,…
Read MoreIN: Sex offenders face hurdles rejoining society
Just mentioning the housing needs of convicted sex offenders is sure to raise the ire of many, with the prevailing attitude being “not in my neighborhood.” It’s an understandable reaction, because those who commit sex crimes often prey on the most helpless and vulnerable victims, our children. To say it’s an especially harmful crime falls short of describing the emotional havoc left in its wake. That’s why many states and locales have enacted laws requiring convicted offenders to register where they live and work; where and how they use the Internet,…
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. Full Article
Read MoreBreaking our prison habit
It’s too soon to declare victory in the long struggle to end our tragic addiction to mass incarceration, but America shows unmistakable signs of finally shaking off the deadly craving — and not a moment too soon. More and more Americans are realizing our status as the world’s largest jailer comes at a shocking cost in dollars and human lives with little benefit to public safety. At the end of 2012, America had 5% of the world’s population, but more than 25% of its prisoners — more than 2.3 million, a…
Read MoreSentenced young: The story of life without parole for juvenile offenders
Opponents of juvenile life without parole point out that the same limitations that make children less culpable for their criminal actions also apply to their experience in the courtroom. “Many young adolescents … are not developmentally and intellectually mature enough to be legally ‘competent’ to stand trial,” Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International wrote in their joint 2005 report. The report points out children’s unique vulnerability to making false confessions, not recognizing bad advice from their defense attorneys and not understanding what is at stake during their trials. Full Article
Read MoreCommunity notification of the Looters of society
This information is going to be a bit hard-core. In a recent blog talk radio show titled Viva La Revolution on Activist Central http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ActivistCentral the narrator put forth the point that the government has made war upon registered citizens, their parents, spouses, siblings and children as well as their employers and friends. As pointed out perhaps we should consider ourselves the resistance fighters in that war and not just fight it at an intellectual level, trying quietly to present the overwhelming mountain of evidence that shows that 99% of the…
Read MoreMan haunted by sex offender with same name & birthdate
Imagine not being able to land a job because you have the same name and birth date as a convicted sex offender. A Buffalo man is facing that very tough situation right now. It is an indescribable frustration facing John Lamar Johnson, a North Buffalo man with family to provide for, who says he’s not giving up until his name is cleared. When your name is John Johnson, you know you’re not the only one out there. “I told my mom I wanted to change it. She said no, I gave you…
Read MoreOur misguided child porn laws do little to protect children
In the letter he wrote on the day he hanged himself last month, Ryan Loskarn talked about the shame and guilt he felt after he was caught with child pornography. Loskarn, former chief of staff to Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), did not mention fear of prison, perhaps because he had already resolved to end his life. But for anyone in his position who planned to stay alive, the prospect of spending years behind bars would loom large. The legal treatment of people caught with child pornography is so harsh that they can end up…
Read More6 Million Americans Without a Voice
The right to vote is the foundation of any democracy, yet nearly six million Americans are denied that right, in many cases for life, because they have been convicted of a crime. Some states disenfranchise more than 7 percent of their adult citizens. In an unflinching speech before a civil rights conference Tuesday morning, Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. described this shameful aspect of our justice system for what it is: a “profoundly outdated” practice that is unjust and counterproductive. Full Editorial
Read MoreThoughts to Share…
Here are a few thoughts I had to share. Practice self reliance and personal accountability (behave yourself or get help) because any mistake will reflect on the whole registry. If you have a business, hire a registrant. If you’re an employee, recommend a local registrant. Be the best person you can be at all times so when your registration slips out society will have to reassess their view of who is registered. Then the politicians won’t be able to scare them into voting for some stupid law. Contribute to CA…
Read MoreReport Describes Financial ‘Abuses’ of Private Probation
More than 1,000 courts in several states allow private companies to oversee probation, often with little oversight or regulation, according to a new report from the non-profit Human Rights Watch. The report describes “abusive” financial practices inflicted by the “offender-funded” model of privatized probation. The findings are primarily derived from more than 75 interviews conducted with people in Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi. Private probation companies supervise people who are on probation for minor offenses, collecting outstanding debts and court costs. They often add on their own fees — for items such…
Read MoreTwisting Sexual-Assault Statistics
It is estimated that one in five women on college campuses has been sexually assaulted during their time there — one in five,” President Obama said on Wednesday. The occasion for this lecture: He was announcing the creation of a White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault. It’s a startlingly high number that figured prominently in the leads of media reports on the announcement. As NRO contributor Heather Mac Donald pointed out the last time the administration bandied it about, if it were true it would mean that women at…
Read More