Citizen's For Change, America - Overview

Tennessee Gestapos Beat a Naked Man
{youtube width="640" height="390"}wELa9-uwRmA{/youtube} HOLY JEEZ! Tennessee Police Strip And Beat Unarmed Man (PHOTOS x VIDEO)   Four police officers allegedly stripped an unarmed man naked, handcuffed him then viciously beat him as he lay screaming and ...
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Top judge arrested on rape charges 'after victim secretly filmed him carrying out attack'

A senior judge has been arrested on rape charges after his alleged victim secretly filmed him carrying out the attack.

Judge Albert Murdoch was also allegedly caught on the hidden tape boasting that he was above the law and would use his police contacts to make any charges go away.

His arrest has led to authorities in New Mexico to look into many of the cases he presided over during a 25-year career.

Accused: Judge Albert Murdoch, a criminal judge for the Second Judicial District Court in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, was arrested on rape charges

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A history of political sex scandals-Our Lawmakers Caught With their Pants Down
A history of political sex scandals Will Rep. Anthony Weiner's career survive? A guide to some of the more notable public embarrassments over the last four decades and how individual politicians weathered the storm: ...
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Lynn professor refutes claim of 100,000 missing sex offenders in new study
Adam Walsh Act deadline is tomorrow; researchers call for a more data-driven national sex offender policy

Jill Levenson, associate professor of psychology and human services in Lynn University’s College of Liberal Education, has co-authored a new study which refutes the common claim that 100,000 sex offenders are missing. The authors call for a more data-driven national sex offender policy.

The study, “100,000 Sex Offenders Missing... or Are They? Deconstruction of an Urban Legend” was published this month in the Criminal Justice Policy Review.

Tomorrow, July 27, marks the deadline for states to comply with federal sex offender registration requirements set forth in the 2006 Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. As of July 18, only eight states had been deemed to have substantially implemented these requirements, and many have called for Congress to revisit key provisions in the law. The “100,000 missing” figure was repeatedly cited in the debates leading to the law’s passage and in its subsequent re-authorization hearings earlier this year.

The study, co-authored by Levenson and Andrew Harris, a criminal justice professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, traces the origins and evolution of the “100,000 missing” figure and identifies multiple fallacies that have surrounded the statistic.

Rates of registration noncompliance among registrants living in the community varied greatly, ranging from about 1 percent in some states (e.g. Florida, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia) to about 13 percent (California, Hawaii and Oklahoma). Nationally, the median rate of noncompliance is about 2.7 percent.

“Differences in how state systems define and capture data make it very difficult to know exactly how many sex offenders have truly gone missing,” said Levenson, “but even using the most inclusive definitions, our data suggest that the 100,000 figure is highly inflated. That figure is three to four times what the number probably is.”

This new analysis is part of a multi-phase research initiative to provide state and federal lawmakers with data to inform policies concerning the nation’s sex offender registries. “Considering how much attention Congress has paid to reforming the nation’s sex offender registries, one would expect that we’d be basing decisions on solid data,” said Harris. “But the fact is that many important policy decisions are occurring in an information vacuum. We shouldn’t be crafting national policy based on sound-bite statistics.”

Read more about Levenson and Harris’ most recent study on the University of Massachusetts Lowell website, or download the full report online.

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Sex Offenders: Society's Modern Leper Colony

by Stan Moody
http://stanmoody.com

In my talks to groups about the burgeoning corrections industry in Maine, the least receptive to change is often the one community that claims a divine calling to right the wrongs of human injustice - the church. Invariably white and dominated by the trappings of worldly success, churches seem almost to have become havens of denial of the sin from which they offer deliverance. 

A case in point is the attitude toward sex offenders. Redemption, it seems, is available to all except the vilest of sinners - those who take advantage of children. On that score, it is impossible to imagine more destructive effects on children than that of physical abuse, divorce and addiction, three cultural cesspools to which the church historically is not immune. 

In the case of Sheldon Weinstein, a brilliant sex offender whose life was casually cut short on April 24, 2009 by the complicity of staff at Maine State Prison, the unexpressed echo in the sanctuary reflects the more audible sentiment of both prison staff and their wards, "He deserved to die." That may well be true of us all at some esoteric level, but there was nothing in Weinstein's sentencing that imposed the death penalty. 

Unless and until the church begins to view itself as a hospital for sinners, it will continue to promote the popularly-rejected assumption that its members are a cut above reproach. 

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To protect and serve...Effects of Registration Laws in America

Most supporters of the sex offender registries are uninformed to the consequences to the innocent. My daughter was offended upon by her father in an event that involved no skin to skin contact. My daughter has been unable to move on and heal because of the registry. Each time she joins a club or begins new employment, it is only a matter of time before someone is able to associate her with her father on the Internet.

About the time she is getting past the pain, the scab gets pulled off with the "buzz" and the label of "the one who was abused". My son is a Jr. Recently, he received a newspaper clipping stapled to his pay stub accusing him of being a sex offender.

At least once a month, he is confronted and accused of being a sex offender. I in no way justify or minimize what my husband did ten years ago; however, he voluntarily turned himself in to the police 9 years ago and has submitted himself to 6 years of therapy. My daughter and son have forgiven him and have learned to love him. My children hearts are pulled out every day when they see the father they love lumped into the same category as a rapist and treated a worthless scum of society. The registry has made my life and children's life a living hell. We have chosen a path of grace and healing and the social condemnation and demonization caused by the registry prevents us from on.-

A comment to a post from a reader.

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Sex Offender Registries should be discontinued.

Sexual offender registries: the lists of sexual offenders that are available online. These lists include people with a wide diversity of offenses: from streaking to rape. These lists are FOR LIFE. The local police stations furnish the information for these registries.

Discontinued: Abolished, removed, stopped. Police stations will providing these lists of offenders.

Advocates of these lists argue that such lists help safeguard local societies from the offenders. I will argue that the harms of these lists far outweigh any benefits.

My arguments:

1) Dehumanization and self-fulfilling prophesy
These lists dehumanize the offenders. People who read the list, fearful and ignorant, ostracize the offenders, mock them, drive them away. Society shuns the offenders and hurts them emotionally. Their offense becomes a scar FOR LIFE. Employers fire them, however excellently they perform. Apart from the emotional, psychological and professional suffering that offenders undergo, they also succumb to a self-fulfilling prophesy, as they fail to reintegrate into society. They are more likely to repeat their sexual offenses, because everyone expects them to. More children are molested, more women raped.

2) Unfair punishment:
For no other crime in the USA does there exist a similar registry of offenders. Thieves lack an online registry; so do murderers! Our justice system becomes unfair when we infringe on the civil rights of offenders when there is no parallel procedure in other crimes. Law should be consistent.

3) Promotes vigilantism:
Often individuals take it upon themselves to eradicate these offenders. There are numerous cases where sexual offenders, even years after their crime, get murdered by their neighbors because they saw the offender's name in an online registry.

Apart from refuting the above arguments, I will place one additional burden on Con:
(a) Provide evidence that such registries WORK and are NEEDED. That they decrease recidivism, or succeed in protecting the community. Only 5% of sexual offenders repeat their crime within the next 3 years. Do registries achieve anything here?

REFERENCES:

Some evidence links on my side:
[1] http://bangornews.com...
[2] http://articles.latimes.com...
[3]http://cfcoklahoma.org...

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Ohio Supreme Court Strikes Down Part of Their Adam Walsh Act

Recently, a highly talented group of lawyers managed to get the Ohio Supreme Court to declare its Adam Walsh Act unconstitutional. State v Williams, 2011 Ohio 3374. This group includes some unlikely friends. Several rape crisis centers filed a Friend of the Court brief supporting the Defendant. Both the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center and the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault filed a brief supporting the Defendant. They noted that the Adam Walsh Law was a law spread by fear and did not help any valid public purpose. Their brief is a wealth of information about why these laws don't work and people need to read it. Less surprisingly, the Ohio ACLU Fund filed a friend of the court brief arguing the matter under ex post facto principles.

While I have focused on the amicus, the Office of the Ohio Public Defender also filed an excellent brief arguing why an offense driven classification scheme is punitive. The OOPD argued that the more rigid the classification system is, the more punitive it is. The Williams Court agreed. While Ohio Courts have upheld predecessor laws, the Court found that the new law passed the boundaries in becoming punitive.

The Court, however, based its decision on a provision contained in the Ohio Constitution (Ohio Const Art II, Sec. 28) which bars the passage of retroactive laws.

That provision provides:

"The general assembly shall have no power to pass retroactive laws, or laws impairing the obligation of contracts; but may, by general laws, authorize courts to carry into effect, upon such terms as shall be just and equitable, the manifest intention of parties, and officers, by curing omissions, defects, and errors, in instruments and proceedings, arising out of their want of conformity with the laws of this state."

The Court noted that the new law extended the duration of registration obligations, imposed a duty on an individual to register with multiple law enforcement agencies, and removed the ability to judicially challenge registration obligations. Because the Ohio Supreme Court based the ruling on the Ohio Constitution, there should be no further appeals in this matter.

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Nude photos or murder, which is worse?
If you have watched the news lately you have seen a story where a mother walked accross a street improperly with her children and some guy driving under the infuance of alcohol ran over and killed her little 4 year old son.... he served 6 months in p...
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Fact Sheets Examine Impact of Sex Offender Registries
Impact of Sex Offender Registries Factsheet: Youth Who Commit Sex Offenses 9/2/2008
Author(s): Justice Policy Institute
Topic(s): Juvenile Justice, Public Safety

Factsheet: The Negative Impact of Registries on Youth
9/2/2008
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High School Sweethearts -- or Sex Offenders?

Frank Rodriguez is family man, a husband and father of four daughters. He is also a convicted sex offender. As such, Frank, 34, is prohibited from coaching his children's soccer teams. Neighbors and employers can find him on the sex-offender registry, alongside pedophiles and child pornographers. An iPhone app directs people to his home. MySpace has delisted him. If he moves out of state, he must promptly register with the local police as a sex offender.

All this, for the crime of having slept with his high school sweetheart 15 years ago.

Back then, Frank was 19 years old, a recent high school graduate in the small town of Caldwell, Texas. That's when he first had sex with his girlfriend and future wife, Nikki Prescott. The two had been dating for nearly a year; the sex was consensual. However, the age of consent in Texas is 17, and Nikki was just shy of 16. Frank got arrested. And with that, he became a registered sex offender.

Over the years, Frank and Nikki married each other, and had their four daughters. Still, Frank remained on the registry, his crime listed as "sexual assault of a child."

Frank and Nikki are not alone. Across the country, high school students are increasingly finding themselves caught in the nation's complicated web of sex-offender laws. Teenagers end up on the registry for having consensual sex with an underage partner, as well as for stunts such as streaking or urinating in public, or for sexting -- sending racy self-portraits, which can be considered child pornography.

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Did Mark Lunsford Recently get a New Harley Davidson Donated to Him?
In a recent interview with by a person who suppor...
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Nebraska gets sued over new unconstitutional law

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OMAHA - The state of Nebraska is being sued over its sex offender registry. The lawsuit comes after the Legislature changed the sex offender laws in the state last year.

As it stands now, anyone convicted of a crime with a sexual element is on the Internet-based registry for everyone to see.

Those who have filed suit say the changes in the law have made them targets of harassment, vandalism and worse.

The plaintiffs include three men of different ages and different walks of life. They agreed to be interviewed if their identities are concealed.

One of the men was convicted of ordering illegal pornography.

"I used to have a porn addiction in the early '90s," said Plaintiff No. 1.

Another was convicted of downloading an illegal video clip.

"I was charged with 76 files, because a person can be charged for each frame (of video)," said Plaintiff No. 2.

The third was found guilty of illegal touching.

"I plead guilty to touching a girl," said Plaintiff No. 3.

In fact, all three men pleaded guilty to their crimes. The state originally labeled each as a low-risk to commit another sex crime.

"Dec. 21, 2009, I was a level one (sex offender). I was not on the public registry," said Plaintiff No. 3. "On Jan. 1, 2010, according to the state of Nebraska, I was suddenly a predator."

His change of status came as the result of the Nebraska Legislature passing LB 285 (PDF), which changed the rules for the sex offender registry. It used to be risk-based, meaning if an offender was deemed low-risk, his or her name wouldn't be made public. Those who were likely to reoffend were placed on the registry.

The change in the law made the registry crime-based, which means anyone convicted, regardless of his or her risk to reoffend, is now added to the registry.
- Just the usual  ex post facto punishment. 

For the three plaintiffs, the fallout has been substantial.

Plaintiff No. 1 said he's had people call his boss.

"They were trying to get me fired in hopes of making me homeless," he said.

He also said his wife has been harassed. People have asked her how she could be married to a sexual predator. He said his daughter has also been the target of verbal abuse.

Plaintiff No. 2 said he's lost his job.

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In re DUSTIN A. On Habeas Corpus.

IN RE DUSTIN A.

In re DUSTIN A. On Habeas Corpus.

No. F060297.

Court of Appeals of California, Fifth District.

Filed July 6, 2011.

Phillip J. Cline, District Attorney, Don H. Gallian and Shani D. Jenkins, Assistant District Attorneys, Barbara J. Greaver and John F. Sliney, Deputy District Attorneys, for Appellant.

Heather J. MacKay, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Respondent.

---

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS

WISEMAN, Acting P.J.

In 2009, Dustin A. was paroled after serving a prison term for a drug possession offense he committed while an adult. In 1995, when he was 16, Dustin was committed to the California Youth Authority (now the Division of Juvenile Facilities¹) for several offenses, including a misdemeanor violation of Penal Code section 647.6, annoying or molesting a minor. Because juveniles who have been committed to DJF for violating section 647.6 are required to register as sex offenders, Dustin fell within Policy No. 07-36 of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), which requires parolees who must register as sex offenders to comply, as a condition of their parole, with Penal Code section 3003.5, subdivision (b). That statute, which was adopted by the voters in 2006 as part of Proposition 83, known as Jessica's Law, prohibits those who are required to register as sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or a park where children regularly gather. Dustin was also told his parole was conditioned on his not being in the presence of minors, including the child he was expecting with his fiancée.

Dustin filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in propria persona, arguing that these parole conditions were unreasonable and that, as applied to him, Penal Code section 3003.5 was an ex post facto law and violated the anti-retroactivity provision of Penal Code section 3. Shortly afterward, the Supreme Court issued its decision in In re E.J. (2010) 47 Cal.4th 1258, which rejected similar ex post facto and Penal Code section 3 claims and remanded for decisions on similar unreasonable-condition-of-parole claims.

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Isolation, indeterminate sentences used to extract confessions at California supermax prisons

by Jeff Kaye

A prisoner in the Pelican Bay SHU must remove all his clothing, spread his toes and buttocks and be handcuffed through the food tray slot without physically touching the guard before he can see the prison dentist. – Photo: sfbappa.org

Adding to Kevin Gosztola’s recent coverage of the hunger strike at Pelican Bay prison — which has spreadto at least six other prisons, including Corcoran California Correctional Institution and Valley State Prison for Women — I want to look more closely at one of the prisoner’s demands, in particular their call for the abolition of the “debriefing process.”

The conditions at Security Housing Units (SHU) at Pelican Bay Prison and other supermax prisons clearly constitute torture and/or cruel, inhumane treatment of prisoners. They rely on the use of severe isolation or solitary confinement, the effects of which I’ve written about before in the context of the Bradley Manning case — see here and here. 

At Pelican Bay, the prisoners in “administrative segregation” are locked in a gray, concrete 8 by 10 foot cell, 22 1/2 hours per day. The rest of the time is spent alone in a tiny concrete yard, if that privilege is granted. There is no human physical contact, no work and no communal activities. If the prisoner has enough money, he can purchase a TV or radio. Meals are pushed through a slot in the metal door.

An end to solitary confinement, and in particular to long-term solitary confinement of an indeterminate nature, is one of five “core” demands of the hunger strikers.

Another key demand concerns the onerous and sinister “debriefing” process. The prisoners are asking the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to “A) cease the use of innocuous association to deny an active status, B) cease the use of informant/debriefer allegations of illegal gang activity to deny inactive status unless such allegations are also supported by factual corroborating evidence, in which case CDCR-PBSP staff shall and must follow the regulations by issuing a rule violation report and affording the inmate his due process required by law.”

Dr. Corey Weinstein elaborated on the “debriefing process” in an article on Prison Legal News:

“More than 50 percent of the men in SHU are assigned indeterminate terms there because of alleged gang membership or activity. The only program that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) offers to them is to debrief. The single way offered to earn their way out of SHU is to tell departmental gang investigators everything they know about gang membership and activities, including describing crimes that they have committed. The department calls it debriefing. The prisoners call it ‘snitch, parole or die.’ The only ways out are to snitch, finish the prison term or die. The protection against self-incrimination has collapsed in the service of anti-gang investigation.”

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Pains, Punishment & Congressional Limits

Before the Bills of Rights were introduced to the Congress, the founding fathers were already starting to limit the power of the federal government, which they thought would then limit the power of the federal government. Boy would they be surprised. Lawmaking, or legislative power, was initially intended to be vested in the Congress. This was long before agencies like the EPA were given their own rule making authority. That issue will be the topic of a future piece. The U.S. Constitution is comprised of seven Articles. Article One covers our federal legislature, the Congress; and Article One, Section Nine has eight clauses intended to restrict or prohibit Congressional authority and types of legislation.

The first restriction is legislation affecting the importation of slaves, and since a direct reference to slaves or slavery would reflect poorly in our governing document, poetic license was employed and the slave trade was referred to as "The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit." Congress was forbidden from passing any prohibition on the slave trade prior to 1808, although a tax could be levied up to ten dollars per slave.

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Revolutionary new approach to sex offender therapy
If all 50 states would put to death all child molesters and rapists.. how much money would tax p...
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National Police Misconduct Statistics Released

Conviction Rate

• 68% of civilians charged are ultimately convicted
• 31% of police officers charged are ultimately convicted

Probation Sentence Rate

• 28% of convicted citizens are sentenced to probation.
• 38% of convicted police officers are sentenced to probation

Sentence Length

• 37 months – average civilian prison sentence length
• 14 months – average police officer sentence length

READ THE FULL REPORT CLICK READ MORE BELOW

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While your son is in prison or homeless,Joshua Lunsford is Living it up!
Child Molester? Joshua Lunsford was caught doing what a lot of American Youth do.. sexually touching a younger girl. But ...
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The Accidental Sex Offender

It was a classic teenage love story. He was a football star, and she was a cheerleader. They met, they fell in love, they started having sex. And then the cops got involved. Fifteen years later, they're still paying the price.

By Abigail Pesta

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When Horseplay Becomes a Life Sentence

Published: Wednesday, July 20, 2011, 10:22 AM Updated: Wednesday, July 20, 2011, 12:33 PM

By Brian Campbell/NJ Voices

I have read newspapers my entire life. It's a hazardous occupation, with the negative and the stupid and the tragic far outweighing the uplifting elements of society. But I have never felt like this – sick to my stomach and full of anger. Jurisprudence in this country has died with this decision.

In Somerset County, two young boys became branded as lifelong sex offenders for, well, being boys. As fourteen year olds, they roughhoused and in a disgusting act, sat on the face of a fell student with their bare buttocks.   As my grandmother once said, it is boys being boys, an unexplainable phenomenon left over from the cavemen days. I certainly do not condone it. I have never done it myself nor had it done to me. Among friends it is known to be a funny, but disgusting form of horseplay. Among those that are not friends, it is the most vile and embarrassing form of bullying and should be punished with significant amounts of suspension, community service, and counseling.

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Megan’s Law: Assessing the Practical and Monetary Efficacy

SAMPLE OF THIS REPORT BELOW:

Ongoing costs consist of expenses such as staff salaries, internet registry maintenance, equipment maintenance/supplies, and other/miscellaneous expenses (e.g. mailings, printings, software updates, etc.). Survey questions concerning on-going expenses pertained to costs accumulated during the calendar year ending 2006. In addition, a section concerning percentage of time allotted to job tasks (i.e. itemized according to staff title) was included and was to be completed for all staff working within each county’s Megan’s Law unit. For example, if an investigator was included under personnel, a percentage breakdown of time allotted to specific job functions such as risk assessment, door to door notifications, training, etc. was required. Of the 21 counties that were surveyed, 15 surveys were completed and received by the research unit, for a total response rate of 71.4 percent. Upon receipt, researchers scanned survey responses for possible misreading/interpretation issues related to specific survey items. For additional clarification, researchers called county prosecutor offices to confirm questionable survey item responses and made any changes accordingly. After survey responses were finalized, an Excel database of cost assessment variables was created for analysis.