Who will pay for enforcing it? How do we penalize those who break it? And who trains the enforcers? No one seems to know.
Los Angeles Times
We hate to say we told you so. But we told you so! A key portion of the "Jessica's Law" ballot measure that an astounding 70% of California voters backed a year ago may never be put into effect. Times staff writer Michael Rothfeld reported Tuesday that state and local officials are each expecting the other to foot the very big bill to monitor global positioning satellite data to track thousands of released sex offenders. Forever.
Other details no one seems to have thought about much when sending Proposition 83 to last November's ballot include how to penalize released offenders who cut the GPS signaling devices from their ankles; no such penalties were mandated by the initiative. Or how to train police and sheriff's deputies to track the movements of offenders through their jurisdictions, in addition to their regular public safety tasks.
The tough-on-crime lobby made the initiative sound so simple: Do you want to protect California's children from 65,000 sex offenders or don't you? Of course you do. So it appealed directly to the emotions of people who revile those who rape and sexually abuse children: Increase the offenders' sentences. After their time is served, restrict where they can live. And track their movements for life by using the power of new technologies.
Fear of monsters and faith in technology. The combination is powerful enough to defeat reason -- and to create ballot measures that promise magical results while delivering only magical thinking. California is prone to that kind of ballot-box daydreaming.
Initiatives would be unnecessary if the Legislature worked better. Had Jessica's Law been restricted to a bill, the Legislature could have identified the practical problems and could have corrected any flaws with follow-up legislation. But the Legislature is a mess, and legislators are unmotivated to fix it. Lawmakers blew a chance to change the way their districts are drawn, leaving the Democratic majority with power to block Republican bills and the Republican minority with just enough clout to block a budget. The job of improving the system falls to the voters, which means action -- perhaps a redistricting plan -- in the form of an initiative.
Here we go again. More ballot measures. More magical thinking. At this rate, it will take an eternity before California breaks the cycle of dysfunction. Perhaps by then, we will have figured out how to enforce our new law to track sex offenders.
We hate to say we told you so... The flaws in 'Jessica's Law'
Sex offense, stabbing connected?
Stabbing death investigation continues
[please note the vicious reader comments which follow the story]
By GLENDA ANDERSON
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
The Lake County Sheriff’s Department is investigating whether Michael Dodele’s status as a registered sex offender contributed to his Nov. 20 stabbing death.
“That’s what we’re looking into,” said Chief Deputy Russ Perdock. He would not divulge details of Dodele’s criminal history nor his relationship with the man suspected of stabbing him, Ivan Garcia Oliver, 29.
Dodele, 67, was stabbed several times.
He was dead when deputies arrived at Western Hills Mobile Home Park on Lakeshore Boulevard.
Garcia Oliver was booked later the same day on suspicion of murder and a parole violation stemming from an assault conviction in San Diego County.
The victim and suspect are believed to have known each other. They lived near each other at the mobile home park, Perdock said.
Reader Comments:
By saunterelle | Tuesday, Nov 27, 2007 06:47P
Thank you to this latino for taking care of business.
By orvicehole | Tuesday, Nov 27, 2007 06:34P
tIME TO DIE LOSER.
By robert5523 | Tuesday, Nov 27, 2007 04:20P
Why do I suspect nobody cares that the troublemaker got himself murdered? And, who wants to bet that, yes, he goosed the wrong guy & thats what started it.
By saunterelle | Tuesday, Nov 27, 2007 03:58P
Good. One less pederass.
[this reminds me of how, once whipped-up into a frenzy of anti-Jewish hatred, many Germans felt fully justified in inflicting violent revenge against any Jew at any moment of their choosing and did so with impunity. It is especially disturbing when this sort of blood-thirsty response becomes commonplace and goes unprotested]
Man Serving Sex Assault Sentence Murdered
Inmate Died From Head, Chest Trauma
WYFF4.com
RIDGELAND, S.C. -- Department of Corrections officials said that a Spartanburg man who was serving a sentence for sexual exploitation of minors was found dead at the prison.
An autopsy found that Thomas Walter Turner, 40, died of head and chest trauma.
Authorities said that they had initially thought that Turner died of natural causes. He was found dead at Ridgeland Correctional Institution about 8:45 p.m. on Nov. 20.
South Carolina Department of Corrections Communications Director Josh Gelinas said an investigation was begun immediately after the autopsy results were released.
In October 2005, Turner started serving a 16-year sentence for criminal sexual conduct with a minor.
Ridgeland is a medium security facility.
Turner was arrested in May 2005 after State Law Enforcement agents found pictures of boys and girls having sex on Turner's home computer.
At the time of that arrest, Turner was a registered sex offender, having been convicted of criminal sexual conduct with a minor in 1998.
Viability of California's sex-offender law in doubt
The lifetime GPS monitoring of Prop. 83 too costly and complex to fully implement.
By Michael Rothfeld, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
November 27, 2007
SACRAMENTO -- -- Law enforcement leaders who pushed for a ballot initiative requiring sex offenders in California to be tracked by satellite for life are now saying that the sweeping surveillance program voters endorsed is not feasible and is unlikely to be fully implemented for years, if ever. ... Under the measure, approved overwhelmingly a year ago, sex offenders must be strapped with global positioning system devices that can record their whereabouts even after they finish parole and leave the criminal justice system. ...
The difficulties include the impracticality of tracking sex offenders who no longer must report to parole or probation officers, the lack of any penalty for those who refuse to cooperate with monitoring and the question of whether such widespread tracking is effective in protecting the public. ... the law does not specify which agency or government should monitor felony sex offenders -- and shoulder hundreds of millions of dollars a year in related costs. ...
...GPS is more effective for acting on tips about potential crimes or investigating incidents that have already occurred than for blanket monitoring that reveals a location as a blip on a map but not what the subject is doing there. ...
Janet Gaard, an assistant state attorney general, told colleagues that Proposition 83 appeared to be "a flawed law," ..."We have the ability to persuade the public and say, 'Maybe we made a mistake,' " Gaard said. ...
State officials say 500 to 700 more sex offenders leave prison each month ... and it would take nearly $90 million a year just to track the 9,000 now on parole if all were subject to Proposition 83. Full Story [Ed: Senator Runner and the Governor didn't think this through first? They were just pandering to public ignorance and vindictiveness? What a surprise!!
Solution: Put R.S.O.'s in trailers to be moved regularly around the county
Suffolk County to Keep Sex Offenders on the Move
By COREY KILGANNON, New York Times
Suffolk County officials have long searched for ways to provide temporary housing for homeless sex offenders... Now officials of this county on Long Island say they have a solution: putting sex offenders in trailers to be moved regularly around the county, parked for several weeks at a time on public land away from residential areas and enforcing stiff curfews.
The trailers will be moved from one undisclosed spot to the next “every one to two weeks, three at the most,” Mr. Blass said. Officials will select sites on county-owned land, often bordering commercial and industrial-zoned areas. Under county law, offenders must not live within 1,000 feet of schools, churches, day care centers or nursing homes.
“They will be located in large, undeveloped areas away from communities,” Mr. Blass said, adding that by law he could not reveal the locations. ... By switching spots frequently, county officials hope to avoid offenders’ getting too accustomed to one area and settling there in numbers. ...It’s an attempt to prevent saturation.” ... Kate Browning, a county legislator from Shirley, who has been an outspoken critic of clustering sex offenders, said the plan would “spread them around so that every area has their fair share of the burden.” Full Story [Ed: The scary thing is, these people are serious!]
Mob Rule: Group pickets restaurant over placement of sex offender
Parolee's home is owned by proprietor of Racine eatery; owner of another restaurant leading the protest
BRENDAN O’BRIEN, Journal Times
RACINE — Darcy Powell lives in a gray, nondescript house surrounded by a well-kept yard on a dead-end street.
There is no name on his mailbox. There is no car in the driveway. There is no sunlight that enters his house since the white shades are kept closed and down.
The dwelling he lives in is among four other houses on a roadway on the northwest edge of Kenosha County in the Town of Somers. On the other side of the two-lane road, there is a small basketball hoop in a driveway, a trampoline in a backyard and an assortment of children’s playthings.
Powell, who was convicted of two counts of second-degree sexual assault of a child and two counts of incest with a child in 1996, preyed on children for years. He now lives in the clutches of the state’s Chapter 980, a program that binds convicted sex offenders to a tightly supervised life outside of prison.
“He is living in his own little prison,” his mentor, Terry Maack, the deacon of St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Kenosha, said Sunday afternoon.
“I can’t talk ... I am not allowed to,” Powell said at his home Sunday.
Maack indicated that Powell, who was released in 2005, is monitored by two tracking bracelets and cannot leave his house without being accompanied by a mentor. He is also given random 3-hour lie detector tests; is not to purchase, possess or consume drugs or alcohol; and is to have no contact with minors, the victims or victims’ families.
“He has 49 regulations that he has to live by, day to day, and he has never missed one fraction. He is trying and he realizes what he did was terrible and horrible,” said Maack, who described Powell as a model parolee. “The man’s penance is going to be for the rest of his life ... losing his family, knowing what he did and being shunned by society.” Full Story
U.K. Uses "SOPO" Laws To Impose Restrictions On "Paedophiles"
Registered sex offender downloaded child porn onto mobile phone
07 November 2007
Chester Evening Leader
By Hayley Maguire
A REGISTERED sex offender will be sentenced at Chester Crown Court for downloading child porn onto a mobile phone and breaching a prevention order (S.O.P.O.).
Richard James Hewitt, 31, appeared before Chester, Ellesmere Port and Neston magistrates and admitted two breaches of a sex offenders prevention order (S.O.P.O.) on March 1 and May 4 and 10 charges of making indecent photographs of a child.
Hewitt was placed on the prevention order and sex offenders register in January after being convicted of similar offences at Wrexham Magistrates Court.
The court heard Hewitt, of Law Street, Hoole, was arrested on August 31 and his mobile phone was seized.
Hewitt had been prohibited from using equipment that could download pornographic images, including mobile phones.
He was arrested again on October 31 after indecent images of children were found on the phone and he was remanded in custody.
Catherine Whincup, prosecuting, said 46 images were found on the phone including five level four
indecent videos of children.
Officers found 24 level one photographs, two level two, 11 level three and four level five.
Miss Whincup said: "Two officers in the case visited the defendant's home on two separate occasions prior to his arrest to ask him to give up any mobile phones. Full Story
Sex offenders' addresses do get checked
http://www.sunherald.com/201/v-print/story/202316.html
South Mississippi Sun Herald
Sex offenders' addresses do get checked
By ROBIN FITZGERALD
rfitzgerald@sunherald.com
-- A woman convicted of a sex crime against a child is wanted on a warrant in Harrison County. She's accused of giving a false address in her latest 90-day visit to a state driver's license office.
A sheriff's investigator obtained a warrant for 50-year-old Beatrice Garza Soliz after learning she doesn't live on Bohn Street in Biloxi, said Sheriff's Capt. Ron Pullen.
The owner of the home has never heard of her, according to a Sound Off. The caller blamed the Sheriff's Department for failing to ask for proof to confirm Soliz's address. But that's not the case, said Pullen.
"She was registered with us," Pullen said, "but once she changed her address through the state, they notified us of the change and we updated our records. We just found out that the state Department of Public Safety didn't ask for proof of address and doesn't require proof. We're trying to get them to change that."
DPS spokeswoman Delores Lewis said that's not her understanding of how the state keeps track of where sex offenders live.
"Generally speaking, we do address verification," Lewis said, "but I can't speak to that specific situation. I would have to look into it."
Mississippi requires convicted sex offenders to register with the sheriff's office in the county they move to after serving their time. A law change in 2005 requires them to verify their address in person every 90 days at a state driver's license office.
"We require them to show a power bill, a water bill, a rental agreement or something similar with their name on it when they register with us," said Pullen.
After an offender registers or moves elsewhere in Harrison County, the Sheriff's Department sends out a postcard to notify neighbors.
The state Sex Offender Registry shows Soliz, convicted in 1992 of indecency with a child/sexual contact, in Fresno County, Calif., last verified her address Oct. 24.
"If we send someone to their address and cannot make contact, we take it a step further and send an investigator," said Pullen. "If they don't live there, we don't hunt them down to ask them to register. We get a warrant."
Failing to register or providing a false address is punishable by up to five years in prison.
Anyone who knows of Soliz' whereabouts is asked to call the Sheriff's Department at 865-7060 or the nearest police department. Records show Soliz has used similar names, including Beatriz and Gutierrez as first or last names.
City's Mayor, A Registered Sex Offender, Can't Work In City Hall Due to Nearby Youth Center
Thursday , November 22, 2007
POTEET, Texas —
The mayor of this South Texas town is a registered sex offender who can be arrested for going to City Hall, but he still doesn't plan to resign.
Donato is required to stay more than 1,000 feet from places where children congregate, and City Hall is "well within 200 feet" of that limit from the Atascosa Boxing Club and Youth Center, City Attorney Frank Garza said.
"It's a huge issue," Hudson said. "The mayor of the city cannot attend city business because of his status as a registered sex offender." Full Story
[Ed: I predict that we will eventually realize every conceivable and absurd possible consequence of residency and mobility restrictions. This is just the beginning...]
No "Loitering", No "Living" in Lexington, GA
Ordinance would be tougher than one just ruled unconstitutional in Georgia
Robert Kittle, WSPA-TV, Wednesday, Nov 21, 2007
The Town of Lexington is about to propose an ordinance that severely limits where sex offenders could live, even though the Georgia Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled unconstitutional a similar law in that state.
Georgia's law banned sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of schools, daycare centers, churches, playgrounds, parks and anywhere else children gather. The Lexington, SC proposal, coming up at its town council meeting December 3, would ban sex offenders from living or loitering within 2,500 feet of those places. Full Story [Ed: Hmm... Does this mean that sex offenders can start withholding taxes they pay for public services they can no longer legally utilize?]
Finally, Some Reason To Give Thanks In Georgia
New York Times, November 22, 2007
Georgia Justices Overturn a Curb on Sex Offenders
ATLANTA, Nov. 21 — The Georgia Supreme Court unanimously struck down a state law Wednesday that limited where registered sex offenders could live, ruling that the statute was so restrictive it unconstitutionally deprived the offenders of their property rights.
The law, described when it was adopted in 2006 as the nation’s toughest restriction on sex offenders, prohibited them from living within 1,000 feet of schools, churches or any other place that children might congregate, including more than 150,000 school bus stops in the state. The ban applied even when a school, a church or the like opened in an area where an offender was already living.
“Under the terms of that statute, it is apparent that there is no place in Georgia where a registered sex offender can live without being continually at risk of being ejected,” said the seven-member court’s opinion, written by Presiding Justice Carol W. Hunstein.
The court ruled that the statute violated Fifth Amendment protections against the public taking of private property without compensation. ...
... Mr. Mann said in a telephone interview that the court’s decision brought great relief.
“You live kind of every day wondering if the sheriff’s office is going to come out and tell you that you have three days to move,” Mr. Mann said. “It’s happened to me twice.”
Mr. Mann said he had challenged the law to protect his family, but also because he had felt he was being unfairly punished for the sake of political pandering.
Full Story
Police alert residents to predatory sex offender running bike shop
[Ed: What's Next? He starts to Pay Taxes? Other bicycle shop owners must be delirious. Thank God "Bend Weekly" is playing its part in keeping kids safe!]
"Bend Weekly", Nov 21,2007
Police alert residents to predatory sex offender running bike shop
by Cheryl McDermott
Police alert residents to predatory sex offender running bike shop
Nov 21,2007 00:00 by Cheryl McDermott
The Oregon City Police Department is alerting businesses and residents that a convicted sex offender who preyed on boys and girls aged 9-to-15 has applied for a business license and is currently running a bicycle shop on Main Street.
Harry Alan Garret, 54, was convicted of first-degree sex abuse and third-degree sodomy in 2000, crimes that involved children, both male and female, between 9 and 15, police reported.
According to a news release, Garret was designated a predatory sexual offender by the Oregon State Police Sex Offender Unit, and officers are alerting businesses and residents in the area surrounding the bicycle shop at 724 Main Street.
Garret, a 54-year old white male who is described as 5-feet 5-inches tall weighing 180 pounds, has blue eyes and is balding with light brown hair. He has applied for a business license, but is open for business while the license is under consideration, the release stated.
Quebec says no to provincial sex offender registry
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
CBC News
The Quebec government will not create a public registry of convicted sex offenders in the province because it may spur vigilante justice, the provincial justice minister said.
Opposition party Action Démocratique du Québec presented a petition Wednesday with more than 62,000 signatures demanding a public registry for convicted sex offenders.
Justice Minister Jacques Dupuis was swift to dash hopes of a public registry, citing concerns about vigilantism and the potential of people hunting down offenders after they're released from prison.
"We absolutely know that that was the case in some instances in the United States, where the registry was made public," he said. Full Story
Analysis: Sex offenders often homeless
U.S.A. Today
WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Many convicted sex offenders are homeless and living in tents, woods and on the street, a USA Today analysis published Monday said.
In Boston, nearly two-thirds of 136 high-risk sex offenders are homeless, while in New York City, more than 100 reported living at shelters, the report said.
Sex offenders, who are required to register with police, have difficulty finding a landlord who will rent to them and often are prevented by law from living near children. Those factors increase homelessness and make sex offenders difficult to track.
In its investigation, USA Today found at least a dozen states list hundreds of sex offenders as homeless, including California which registered 2,716 as "transient." Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois and Maine were among the states where the number of transient sex offenders was rising.
Laura Rogers, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Justice Department told the newspaper that homeless sex offenders aren't necessarily more dangerous than those with housing.
"The people you need to be worried about most are the ones who aren't registering at all," Rogers said.
Saginaw Texas Limits Sex Offenders To Living In 1 Of 10 Houses
Saginaw shows no neighborly feelings for sex offenders
By BUD KENNEDY
Star-Telegram staff writer
Saginaw is scared. So scared, apparently, that the City Council has done something foolish -- and maybe expensive. The council voted two weeks ago to approve a map that effectively zones two neighborhoods where convicted sex offenders can move into the city -- and nowhere else.
More precisely, the council created giant "child safety zones" across nearly the entire city of 18,500 people. The zones force sex offenders into about 100 houses on the north or southeast edges of town.
That's not all.
Saginaw also did something else almost unheard of. The city told convicted sex offenders that even if they pick one of those 100 houses, they can't move within 500 feet of where another sex offender lives.
In other words, the way I read the map, Saginaw has basically banished sex offenders from all but about 10 houses. That means that Saginaw will be diverting sex offenders to other cities and into rural Tarrant and Wise counties, which don't have the same power. Full Story
Fed Appeals Court Upholds GPS Device/Scarlet Letter Combo
By KRISTIN M. HALL
Associated Press
Tracking devices used to monitor sexual offenders in Tennessee are not intended as additional punishment, a federal appeals court has ruled.
A three-judge panel voted 2-1 in Friday's ruling that the constitutional rights of a Knox County sex offender, identified in the case as "John Doe," were not violated.
But in a dissent, 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove said the global positioning system device that must be worn at the waist outside of clothing [Ed:?!] amounts to a symbol of his crime — a modern-day "scarlet letter."
Doe was convicted and sentenced for aggravated kidnapping and sexual battery before the new laws took effect. He claimed the state couldn't retroactively reclassify him as a violent sex offender.
Full Story
http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071117/NEWS03/711170360/1017/NEWS
Sex Offender Limits "to Enter Buildings" Considered by Brookfield, WI To Somehow Make Sense
Brookfield aldermen back housing curbs
By BRANDON LORENZ
Special to the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Nov. 15, 2007
Brookfield - The Common Council's Legislative and Licensing Committee on Thursday night revised, and unanimously recommended approval of, an ordinance preventing sex offenders from moving within 1,500 feet of places where children gather.
If the council approves the measure, sex offenders would be prevented from moving into about 90% of the city's residential units, according to city data.
At issue Thursday was language that would require sex offenders to obtain permission from building owners to enter temporarily into restricted areas where children could gather, such as churches or schools.
But with similar restrictions enacted in most of the city's neighboring communities, some aldermen expressed fears that Brookfield could become an island where sex offenders would relocate.
Full Story
Nun Pleads No Contest in Sex Abuse
CATRIN EINHORN, New York Times
A Roman Catholic nun pleaded no contest yesterday to two counts of indecent behavior with a child in connection with accusations from the 1960s when she was a principal and teacher at a Catholic school in Milwaukee.
The nun, Norma Giannini, 79, faces up to 20 years in prison for what prosecutors say was sexual abuse of two male students.
Although dozens of nuns have been accused of sexual abuse, often in civil lawsuits, Sister Giannini is one of the first to face criminal charges, said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, a group that compiles reports about abuse in the Roman Catholic Church.
Mary Pat Fox, president of Voice of the Faithful, a lay group formed in response to the Catholic sexual abuse scandal, said she hoped the case would encourage more victims of nuns to come forward. “I think this is the tip of the iceberg,” Ms. Fox said.
According to a criminal complaint filed by the Milwaukee County district attorney’s office, Sister Giannini repeatedly assaulted the two boys while they were in middle school at St. Patrick School. The complaint said the assaults included intercourse and occurred in numerous locations, including a convent and a classroom. Full Story Ed: Apparently, they're running out of priests. Seriously, though, does it trouble anyone else that we are seeing yet another big scare that is said to be "the tip of the iceberg"?
Head Found, Teens Arrested in 'Thrill Kill' Death of Decapitated Sex Offender
Monday , November 12, 2007
Fox News, Detroit
Two teens have been charged in the brutal decapitation death of a registered sex offender in Michigan whose headless body was left to burn in a subdivision in what prosecutors are calling a "thrill kill."
Not guilty pleas were entered Monday in Romulus District Court for Jean-Pierre Orlewicz, 17, and Alexander James Letkemann, 18, on one count each of first-degree premeditated murder, felony murder and mutilation of a corpse in the death of 26-year-old Daniel Gene-Vincent Sorensen.
"A crime like this surprises us all," Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said at a press conference. "Any time anyone kills just because they want to — and that's what the evidence seems to suggest here — is bone-chilling. Why anybody would want to do that, especially being 17 years old, it makes us think and ask a lot of questions about our society." [Ed: This crime is not at all surprising and the state is complicit in this violence through its inflammatory use of sex offender websites, flyers and community notification]
Prosecutors allege the men lured Sorensen to the Canton Township home of Orlewicz's grandfather.
"They lured him in the garage where they prepared a space to kill him," Worthy said.
A tarp had been spread on the garage floor, and Sorenson was stabbed multiple times in the back. His head was sawed off and his body wrapped in the tarp, authorities said.
There, on a tarp they allegedly spread out for the attack, they slit Sorensen's throat with a knife and repeatedly stabbed him before cutting off his head with a hacksaw, prosecutors said.
They allegedly used a blowtorch on his hands and feet in an attempt to remove his fingerprints, officials said.
His torso was driven in a pickup truck and dumped in a Northville Township cul-de-sac where it was set on fire with gasoline. A utility crew found it the next morning, police said.
His head was dumped in the Rouge River near the border between Dearborn Heights and Detroit. It was found Saturday.
"They made plans on how they were to clean up the blood," Worthy said. "They made plans on how they were going to dispose of the body. No matter how malicious we all think it may be, it was very thought out and very methodical."
"I want to put a face to these people," Sorensen's father, Jim, told MyFOXDetroit on Sunday. "And if it’s a friend I want to know who would call themselves friend and do this to my son."
Sorenson was convicted in Tazewell County, Ill., when he was 17 of having sex with a 14-year-old girl, said Northville Township police Lt. Greg Rhodes. His troubled past had nothing to do with the murder, Worthy said. Full Story
As Frank Valado Lay Dying...
Mike St. Martin reports on the death of Frank Valado at Coalinga State Hospital. His report recounts Valado's final moments and the seeming indifference with which his life was regarded by California Department of Mental Health staff. Listen To Report
Committing sex offenders is costly, not very effective
By The Daily News
Douglas Allen Alsteen, a repeat sex offender, has done his time. Now he's back in a Cowlitz County courtroom, facing the possibility of indefinite confinement at Washington's Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island.
The violent sexual predator law state prosecutors are hoping will keep Alsteen locked away continues to stir controversy 17 years after its enactment. Critics say the law smacks of double jeopardy and fails to accomplish its expressed purpose, which is to treat violent sex offenders until they no longer pose a threat to society.
According to a recent New York Times report on costs at McNeil Island and civil-commitment facilities at the 18 other states that enacted laws modeled on Washington's, this state pays an average of $127,632 anually for each person committed under the law. That compares to $29,055 annually for each prison inmate. Washington's civil commitment program now has 266 residents. It's budget for fiscal 2007 totals $45 million. Full Story
Burned, Headless Man is ID'd as Child Sex Offender
November 9, 2007
BY BEN SCHMITT, Detroit Free Press
Northville police have identified the burned, headless body found on a cul-de-sac as a River Rouge man who was a registered sex offender.
Northville police, with the assistance of the Michigan State Crime Lab, used a fingerprint Thursday to identify the man as Daniel Sorensen, 26.
Sorensen was registered as a sex offender in Michigan and in Tazewell County, Ill., where records indicate he was convicted of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a victim between 13 and 16 years old. Full Story
Chesapeake ( VA) Wants To Add Community Centers, Parks and Libraries to List of Places Sex Offenders Can't Approach
November 8, 2007
Associated Press & 13News
CHESAPEAKE, Va. (AP) -- Chesapeake leaders want to add community centers, parks and maybe even libraries to the list of places that sex offenders can't approach.
The city plans to ask state legislators to amend the Virginia code to prevent convicted sex offenders from going within 100 feet of any public recreational area, community center or park.
Delegate John Cosgrove is supportive of the effort. He says it's a way to protect children and is "something we should have done a while ago."
"It just didn't make any sense to see that a sexual predator could have that type of access to a place with kids and vunerable folks," Cosgrove told 13News. "So, we need to make sure that that loophole is closed."
Board member Steve Johnson says he has heard of web sites that point predators to parks and recreation centers to find children. Full Story
Ohio Bill Would Make Sex Offenders Display Green License Plates
Thursday, November 08, 2007
A controversial bill to require sex offenders to display neon green license plates is making waves between Ohio lawmakers and law enforcement officials, MyFoxCleveland.com reports.
Prosecutors, sheriffs and police chiefs oppose Kristen’s Law, named for 14-year-old Kristen Jackson, who in 2002 was lured from a fair by a paroled sex offender, murdered and her body dismembered.
They say the perpetrators are smart enough to find other ways to corner their victims and fear the plates will cause vandalism and harassment against the offenders, as well as road rage and traffic hazards. Full Story
15-Year-Old Boy Charged with Failing to Re-Register as S.O.
by Raymond Rivera
11/08/2007 11:12 AM ET
DOVER, Del.- Delaware State Police arrested a 15-year-old Magnolia boy on charges of failure to re-register as a sex offender.
Police say the boy was arrested Wednesday afternoon in Meadowbrook Acres after police received information that he might be in the area. The boy is a tier-two, moderate-risk sex offender stemming from a 2005 fourth-degree rape conviction.
According to authorities, detectives also arrested the boy on an outstanding warrant for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. Police say that charge was the result of an Oct. 23 investigation.
The boy was arraigned at Kent County Family Court, and ordered held at the Stevenson House Detention Facility.
Little Elm restricts where sex offenders live and go
The Dallas Morning News, http://www.dallasnews.com
© 2007 The Associated Press
LITTLE ELM, Texas — This North Texas town has adopted new rules restricting not only where registered sex offenders can live, but also where they can go.
The Little Elm Town Council on Tuesday approved ordinances covering about 68 percent of the town's land.
Under one ordinance, registered sex offenders can't live within 1,000 feet of places where children commonly gather, such as schools, parks, libraries and day care centers.
A second ordinance prohibits registered sex offenders from going within 1,000 feet of places where children commonly gather. Full Story
Parks Emerging As The New "NO-GO" Destination
"Convicted sex offenders don’t have many advocates, but a recent rush of laws banning them from public parks has called into question just how many civil liberties these people should have to give up." ..."After the town of Woodfin in 2005 became the first municipality in the state [North Carolina] to adopt an ordinance banning sex offenders from public parks, the American Civil Liberties Union sued on the grounds that the prohibition was too broad and allowed for no exceptions." "The ACLU lost the case against Woodfin and a subsequent attempt to appeal was turned down by a North Carolina Court of Appeals in an Oct. 2 decision this year. Since the ordinance was upheld, other towns have moved to adopt their own versions." Full Story
Editor: Keep in mind, they are not talking about residency restrictions here. Now the push is on to "red-line" areas of the community where a registered sex offender can go. How long until we have complete banishment?
Scott Chris Thomas Is Not A Sex Offender
Scott Chris Thomas is not a sex offender. You can't find his name or his picture on California's Megan's Law Website. When he was released by the California Department of Corrections onto parole, he didn't have to go to a police station to register as a sex offender. He didn't have to find a place to live that was at least 2,000 feet from the nearest school or park.
But Scott Thomas, a known violent offender on parole, decided to rob a San Franciso bakery and stab a fifteen year old girl who happened to be there, almost to death. She lived, but now faces the possibility of never regaining the use of her right arm. A passer-by, coming to the aid of the girl, received three stab wounds, including a punctured lung. As it turned out, when the C.D.C. sprang him loose from San Quentin State Prison, they didn't realize that they were freeing the wrong “Thomas”. Scott Chris Thomas, who is white and 26 years old, was mistaken for another inmate with the last name “Thomas” who is black, much heavier, and in his fifties.
Here's my point: the State of California has implemented a rigid and encompassing mechanism for tracking and monitoring those convicted of sex offenses, even when the circumstances of their offense were devoid of elements of force, coersion, or violence. Those offenders receive tons of attention, not only from their parole officers, but from local police in the location to which they are paroled, the press, and the public. They immediately have to register as sex offenders at the local police station, their homes are carefully scrutinized to ensure compliance with the requirements of “Jessica's Law”, and local neighborhood “watch” committees may distribute flyers with their picture, their address, and the particulars of their offense to all of their new neighbors.
“Sex Offenders” receive seemingly unlimited attention from the government, the press and the public. But other criminals, regardless of their propensity for violence or its documented history, are unencumbered by any public registry and do not have to report to the police department, have their fingerprints taken, their photos taken, and their residence verified. Neither websites nor flyers bearing their photos can be viewed by local residents. And apparently, the California Department of Corrections can take a much more cavalier approach to their release.
The C.D.C. allocated very little concern to their release of Scott Chris Thomas, a cold and narcissistic thug whose mug shot exudes sociopathy through his contemptuous sneer. And yet I had a very difficult time finding this picture of him, despite his having recently nearly murdered a young girl. And that's because he's not on any public registry and the press spent very little time on this story compared to say, Cary Verse who, after completing years of sex offender treatment, was released into the community to the roars of public indignation and chased from one community to another, just trying to find a place to live. How do we reconcile the difference in attention received by these two types of offenders and how do we justify these differences as a matter of public policy?
I would suggest that the key difference lies not in the exercise of some carefully considered and objective standard for dangerousness but in a knee-jerk overreaction to sex offenses, especially those involving children on the one hand and an underreaction to amoral and pathological parasites like Scott Thomas, on the other.
A Warning To Parents On Halloween
When I was a kid, the big Halloween scare for our parents was the possibility of razor blades or needles placed in the apples or candy given out, presumably by diabolical adults, to the small and unsuspecting trick-or-treaters going door-to-door. That this scare was based not at all on fact and in the complete absence of documented cases, did not keep this urban rumor from becoming a major preoccupation of our parents and teachers. Indeed, this myth is still alive, although modern recommendations, such as having the collected candies X-rayed by benevolent police departments, are the contemporary countermeasures providing the societal upper hand in any negotiations with the evil spirit world. However, like ghost stories told around a campfire by cub scouts, our contemporary Halloween mythology requires ever more frightening embellishments to this specious, and seemingly eternal, narrative.
Far scarier than mere needles placed in a miniature Snicker's bar (after all, what's the worst that could happen? A painful trip to the emergency room?) is the much more ominous possibility of your little trick-or-treater being snatched from a pedophile's porch and tied up in his basement to suffer unspeakable sexual tortures. Even worse, one suspects that such a monster would not let them live after sating his perverse appetites.
That this much scarier myth is no more rooted in fact than the needles and razors of old is of no significance to the ever-vigilant fear mongers who obsessively quote one another in a mad dash to grab market share on the local t.v. news or in newspapers. The truth is, the little bunny or princess-costumed youngsters are far more likely to be killed in a traffic accident while being driven by their parents to a "safe" and organized Halloween venue with police volunteers posted at the doors of the staged events to deter any desperate molesters who might sneak in, than they would be if left alone, amongst their peers, going door-to-door and chanting "trick or treat"!
At some point, we need to ask what effect all of this "long night of fright" has upon our children, ourselves, and our society. There is a cost- I am sure of it- but clearly, it has been completely overlooked as one of the actual dangers we, and our children, face.
"Families for Freedom" (U.K.) On Childhood Fear mongering
Children do face very real problems today. They are over-protected and prevented from developing any life separate from their parents. They are driven to school, watched at play and their activities are organised by adults. As a result, they have less and less opportunity to explore the world for themselves, to choose their own friends, and to learn what it means to be independent.
People are susceptible to the scaremongering around children because we live in a society that has lost faith in itself. Families for Freedom argues the case for less worry and fewer restraints. We urge parents to relax and enjoy their children. We implore everybody to resist the scares that may frighten the life out of our future generation.
Exonerating the Friedmans
Hypnosis Rigged Sex Case Against Him, Says Jesse Friedman
By COREY KILGANNON, New York Times
The 2003 documentary “Capturing the Friedmans” raised questions about the prosecution of Jesse Friedman, who in 1988 pleaded guilty as a teenager to 243 counts of sex crimes against children he and his father taught in computer classes in their Long Island home.
Mr. Friedman, who served 13 years in prison, has sought to overturn his case and clear the family name, an effort that seemed bolstered by the documentary, which featured a 24-year-old man who said he remembered being abused as a child at the Friedman home in Great Neck only after being hypnotized. ...
“You have a group of kids who initially said they were not abused, wrangled by a group of therapists who utilized highly suggestive methods like hypnosis until the kids emerged from the sessions with the most lurid and highly unbelievable examples of sexual abuse and going directly to the grand jury,” he said. “There is no more inherently unreliable form of testimony than that.” full story
The Child Porn Hoax
By Susie Bright, SusieBright.com.
Posted October 2, 2007
"...How dare anyone call it a hoax! We know children are being abused. We know some of that abuse is sexual. We know the cameras are everywhere. Isn't it obvious? No, it's not."
"...Once upon a time, there was a very serious reporter for a very serious newspaper, who decided to investigate one of society's scourges: the child pornography ring. Two years after his exposés riveted the nation, it turned out the reporter had gone off the deep end. He'd paid his main source, become a webmaster at the very porn site he was investigating, lied and bullied anyone who questioned him, and had all but ostracized himself out of a reporting career. But it wasn't just him. The witch-hunters, bogeyman blamers, and moral-panic enablers -- were everywhere. Our little reporter might have landed in deep shit, but the hysteria he milked became bigger than ever before."
"Call him one of the most bizarre media offenders in the past two years of fear-mongering: Former New York Times and Portfolio reporter Kurt Eichenwald. He wrote two front-page stories on the subject of sex that won't be forgotten soon: Through His Webcam, a Boy Joins a Sordid Online World, and its followup, Child Sex Sites on the Run. From the get-go, both stories were creepy: the softcore sexy descriptions, the "blame the internet" righteousness, the homophobic ick factor, and the unexplained implication that Eichenwald had looked at piles of this material himself, when by current law, he wouldn't have that right, no matter how well-intentioned his purpose!"
"Why did Kurt portray himself as an elite one-man rescue mission, and why was he so lurid in his crusade? It didn't smell right."
"As [Debbie] Nathan revealed in her latest courtroom coverage in Counterpunch, Eichenwald has just retained a criminal defense lawyer -- and I don't think it's for jaywalking. The courts who've investigated the Berry sting operation found that Kurt himself was one of the webmasters with full access on Justin's web site. He gave large amounts of money to Justin and was in possession of many photographs and videos from Justin's portfolio." Speechless yet?" full story
Do tough sex laws help or hurt?
State's crackdown easier to apply to strangers; 93 percent of offenders know victims
October 20, 2007, DIANE JENNINGS and DARLEAN SPANGENBERGER / The Dallas Morning News
"...As a sexual abuse survivor, the Dallas woman understands the emotional appeal of harsher sentences for child abusers. But she says the new get-tough Texas laws promise more than they can deliver because they won't affect the vast majority of sex offenders. "We're focusing on stranger danger," she said of the crackdown, which includes 25-year minimum sentences and the death penalty for some child rapists. "That's not who's molesting the vast majority of our children."" ...
"According to federal statistics, juvenile sexual assault victims know their perpetrator a staggering 93 percent of the time. Often, it's a family member. Frequently, it's another child. Rarely is it a stranger. " ...
"...it's actually very rare that that kind of political reaction [harsher penalties] makes for good public policy." ...
"Crimes in which a child is snatched by a stranger are extremely unusual, despite public paranoia. Of almost 800,000 missing children in a one-year period, just 115 were victims of a stereotypical kidnapping, and half of those involved sexual assault, according to the Department of Justice."...
""The new laws are "sheer demagoguery," said veteran Dallas defense lawyer Vincent Perini, noting that long sentences were already available."...
"...A third of all sexual offenses are committed by juveniles, according to the Texas Council on Sex Offender Treatment." ... "Legal challenges: Child-on-child sex crimes are incredibly difficult to deal with, said Shannon Edmonds, director of governmental relations for the Texas District and County Attorneys Association. "Oftentimes, they occur within families. And the problem is trying to weed out the ones who are a danger vs. the ones who are just playing doctor." full story
The ACTUAL Risks to Children
Sex Offenders vs. Child Safety
by Shirley Lowery, S.O.S.E.N. (Sex Offender Support & Education Network)
September 3, 2007
"The laws enacted to monitor and control sex offenders are extraordinary. I think we can all agree to that. The general public believes these extraordinary laws are justified. The faces of murdered children, killed by sexual predators, are flashed on the TV urging us to "consider the children." And who could resist? Who would want to? Surely it is justified to face the threats to our children.
But what are those threats really? Is there a way to know? Actually, yes..." ...
"in 2002, your child was:
1400% more likely to hang themselves than be snatched and killed by a sex offender.
1500% more likely to shoot themselves than be snatched and killed by a sex offender
3200% more likely to be murdered with a firearm by someone besides a sex offender.
4000% more likely to be shot, stabbed, strangled, burned alive or poisoned than snatched and killed by a sex offender.
15300% more likely to be killed in a car crash than snatched and killed by a sex offender. full story
Boys, 9 and 11, Charged in Sex Assault
Howell, Michigan
Two boys, ages 9 and 11, have been charged with forcing a 7-year-old boy to perform oral sex on them on a school bus.
The boys, charged in juvenile court, could be placed on Michigan's sex offender registry for life if they are convicted, The Ann Arbor News reported Tuesday.
The incident reportedly took place in May. The boys- accused of first- and second-degree criminal sexual conduct and gross indecency between males-are students at Howell Elementary School, about 45 miles northwest of Detroit.
Authorities will request an evaluation to determine whether the sexual contact was predatory or experimentation, Livingston County Prosecutor David L. Morse said.
The 11-year-old was released Friday on a $25,000 personal bond. He is required to be monitored by an adult at all times and is not allowed to spend the night at his mother's house if his two younger siblings are present.
The 9-year-old was charged in August, but the status of his case wasn't available Tuesday.
The 11-year-old's court-appointed lawyer said his client pleaded not guilty, and he called the court conditions excessive.
"In the blink of an eye, he went from being a boy to being a man before the court," attorney Carolyn Henry said.
The father of the 7-year-old reported the incident to police after catching his son performing oral sex on his younger brother at home, WHMI-FM reported. The 7-year-old later told police that the 9-year-old boy forced him to perform sex acts on him several times on the bus, the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus reported.
'Corrective' Sex Education May Make Sex Offenders More Dangerous
Science Daily
University of Alberta study, Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability
Date: October 17, 2007
While it is commonly thought that men with low IQs sexually offend because of a lack of knowledge or sexual deviance, new research has found the men may sexually offend because of their exposure to "corrective" sex education previously taken. full story
Are We Teaching Children To Fear Men?
"And that men are out to hurt them? The answer, on many fronts, is yes".
By JEFF ZASLOW, Wall Street Journal, August 23, 2007
"When children get lost in a mall, they're supposed to find a "low-risk adult" to help them... "a pregnant woman," "a mother pushing a stroller" or "a grandmother." The implied message: Men, even dads pushing strollers, are "high-risk." " ... "Child advocate John Walsh advises parents to never hire a male babysitter. Airlines are placing unaccompanied minors with female passengers rather than male passengers. Soccer leagues are telling male coaches not to touch players". ... "People assume that all men "have the potential for violence and sexual aggressiveness," says Peter Stearns, a George Mason University professor who studies fear and anxiety. Kids end up viewing every male stranger "as a potential evildoer," he says, and as a byproduct, "there's an overconfidence in female virtues."" full story
Malaysia To Exchange Sex Offenders List With Other Countries
Asia Observer
By D.Arul Rajoo
"The Royal Malaysia Police, who are considering publishing the list of convicted child sex offenders, plan to exchange information on paedophiles, rapists, human traffickers and other criminals with enforcement agencies world-wide. Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan said that initially they would exchange the database of such offenders with their counterparts in Europe and Asean. "We want closer networking with other countries due to the trend in human trafficking". full story
The "Teen Sex Slave" Scams ABC's Primetime Fakery
CounterPunch, February 17, 2006
By DEBBIE NATHAN
"...the Bush Administration's mission to find foreign "sex trafficking" victims has gone belly up since it began in 2001. Almost no victims have been located, but the feds want to keep their law and rhetoric afloat and broaden it to other areas, including the culture wars. For ballast, they're trolling for a domestic demographic, warning that kids and prostitution is a new "trafficking" problem.
But the claim is specious. To make it, you have to play with language and omit facts or bend them so far that they break. That's what Primetime did, Thursday, February 9, with two teens, one pseudonymed "Debbie," and the other called by her real name, Miya." full story
Sex Offender Roundup Begins Today
By John Simerman
Contra Costa Times
State parole agents today will start arresting perhaps hundreds of recently paroled sex criminals, many of whom could land back in prison for living too close to schools and parks under Proposition 83, corrections officials said Thursday.
Plans for an aggressive roundup of parolee sex offenders who live within 2,000 feet of schools and parks where children "regularly gather" were announced a day after the California Supreme Court blocked the state from forcing four parolees to move out of the zones or have their parole revoked. full story
Registered Offenders Rights Being Defended
by Betty Price, Founder "Roar for Freedom"
October 14, 2007
"It is time for all Registered Sex Offenders to file these lawsuits. No one in the injustice system cares what happens to the entire family. In most instances, the family has to move to an apartment or another house, pay rent on where they are living and pay a mortgage on their house while trying to sell it. I pray this Gentleman and his Attorney take this as far as they can, if they have to. ...If more Registered Sex Offenders would fight back like this Gentleman, perhaps you could make some changes in these ignorant laws. Stop thinking fearfully and think logically and smartly."... "The right to own property in this country is a fundamental right. Why is he being deprived of a fundamental right to own and enjoy property?" Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer"
One Citizen's Response to Proposed Ordinance in Illinois
"The American people, it would seem, have embarked on a project to totally destroy the group of people it has defined as "sex offenders." It has, in other words, decided that it wants to purify itself by means of a holocaust. The term "holocaust," which has the literal meaning of a complete destruction by fire, is commonly used to refer to any massive destruction of a group of people by another group of people. The best known example is the Jewish Holocaust under Hitler. Is it overstating the case to use this term with regard to the treatment of sex offenders in the US? I would submit to you that, on the contrary, what we have been witnessing for some years now with regard to the sex offender issue has all the earmarks of an emerging holocaust. The first and perhaps most important step in the creation of any holocaust is the demonization of the group of people that is to be destroyed". full story
University of Washington wants sex offenders moved, Property Owner Suspects Ulterior Motives
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
October 12, 2007
By KATHY MULADY
"Carol Clarke believes in second chances. It's part of the reason she allows sex offenders who have served their prison time -- and have a plan for turning their lives around -- to live in the five houses she manages ...near the University of Washington. Clarke is mystified why suddenly, after seven years without problems, 13 sex offenders under state Department of Corrections supervision, who rent rooms in her homes along 18th Avenue Northeast, may have to find new places to live. ... Clarke suspects that the growing university wants to buy her houses. When she complained about her tenants being forced to move, she said, Godfrey told her, "There is a solution to our problem. We can buy a couple of your houses, and you can go set your program up somewhere else."" full story
Sex Offender Laws May Do More Harm Than Good
Sarah Tofte, for the Huffington Post
October 12, 2007
"It's not surprising that those who know something about the nature of sexual violence in the United States have started to criticize the way the laws treat former sex offenders. But it's a shame that politicians don't seem to be listening to the experts who could help to craft laws that might actually prevent sexual violence." read story
State defies high court over sex offenders: Hundreds will be sent back to prison for violating Jessica's Law
Michael Rothfeld, Los Angeles Times
October 12, 2007
SACRAMENTO -- — Vowing to fight an order from the state's highest court, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and corrections officials Thursday defiantly began sending hundreds of freed sex offenders back to prison for violating strict residency requirements imposed by voters last year. full story
Sex offenders' rights defended
Thursday, October 11, 2007 4:02 AM
By Mary Beth Lane, The Columbus Dispatch
"Forcing a registered sex offender to leave a home that he bought before a residence-restriction law went into effect in 2003 violates his constitutional property rights, a lawyer for an offender told the Ohio Supreme Court yesterday". full story
Mob beat up paedo slur victim
Christopher Peters was so terrified after locals on his estate falsely called him a pervert that he put in CCTV. Mr Peters - cowering indoors after an earlier assault - answered his door, expecting police. But James Nicholson, 19, ex-soldier dad James Snr, 52, and Andrew Smith, 23, rushed in to attack him and son Anthony late at night in Hythe, Hants, in March. Nicholson Snr, of Hythe, got 42 months for GBH and burglary and his son 28 months for ABH, GBH and two other offences. Smith, 23, got 32 months for ABH and GBH. All had previous convictions. Southampton crown court judge John Boggis QC stressed Mr Peters was "not and has never been a paedophile".A vigilante mob have been jailed after storming the home of a man wrongly branded a paedophile and battering him and his son.
Ordinance would restrict where sex offenders could go
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
BRIAN ECKHOUSE, THE CALIFORNIAN
" CANYON LAKE -- A proposed ordinance favored by the City Council would prohibit sex offenders from being within 500 feet of parks, beaches and bus stops. The ordinance would further restrict how close a sex offender could live -- and visit -- to these public places". full story
Judge strikes sex offense commitment law
By Mike Baker, Associated Press Writer
RALEIGH, N.C. — The U.S. government cannot keep sex offenders in custody beyond the end of their prison sentences, a federal judge has ruled, striking down a law aimed at holding some in mental hospitals. full story
Counterpunch Urges Support for Reform of Sex Offender Laws
By PAUL SHANNON, Counterpunch Magazine
July 10, 2007
You can sign this public statement at Reform Sex Offender Laws website to support the reform of existing sex offender laws.
"There is today in our country a growing threat to our legal system, to the rights of all of us, to the quality of life of children, and to common sense. This threat has been fanned by prosecutors, nurtured by the media, and ignored by those who usually speak out against such dangers. In its most narrow sense this threat can be defined as the particular approach to sexual deviance embodied in ever-more-draconian laws against all behaviors labeled "sex offenses" -- including those committed by minors -- and in the sex offender registries of every state and the Federal government. In this approach to sex offenses slander, hysteria and demonization often replace reason, solid research and proportionality". full story
Reform Sex Offender Laws: A Call to Protect American Society, our Children and our Liberties
(Sign the Petition! at reformsexoffenderlaws.org website)
"This is the statement of a group of concerned Americans, including educators, health workers, and community activists, based on a similar Call issued in Boston in 1999. We urge others to join us in this campaign". go to Reform Sex Offender Laws to read petition
Letter Writing Suggestions:
You can use this format to write a personal letter to show your concern for the Detainees in Coalinga Hospital. If you can, try to personalize this letter as you might write it so that it to distinguish it from the rest. See the list below for ideas of other possible concerns you may way wish to express to the Directors. Also, don't be discouraged if you don't get through to them on the first attempt and don't hesitate to communicate your concerns through letters, phone calls and emails (preferably, all three).
Please Note: Under privacy regulations, the Hospital is forbidden from discussing patient information until you have contacted your friend or family member and a release of Patient Information form is signed by them. Therefore, have them fill out and submit a CSH Release Form No. DMH 5671, REV. 3/04 granting you access to their records.
SAMPLE LETTERS TO COALINGA STATE HOSPITAL: (You can highlight and copy all text below (CTL+C) and then paste (CTL+V) into Word or some other text program (
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
[Date]
Mr. Norman Kramer, Executive Director
Coalinga State Hospital
24511 West Jayne Avenue
P.O. Box 5000
Coalinga, CA 93210-5000
Dear Mr. Kramer,
I am a [friend, parent, brother, etc.] of (name of patient), who is a patient at Coalinga State Hospital. I have received some news about problems in your facility and am very concerned. I want assurance that he is receiving fair evaluations and proper treatment.
In addition to my questions about the medical care he receives, I would also like to confirm that his legal and civil rights are being upheld. I would like to schedule a conference with you and tour your facility to help answer my questions and allay my concerns.
Sincerely,
[Name
Address
Phone
Email]
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
to send this message by email or to call Norm Kramer on the phone:
Tel: (559) 935-4300
Email: nkramer@dmh.ca.gov (this is unverified but you can try it)
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Stephen W. Mayberg, Ph.D. Director,
California Department of Mental Health
1600 9th Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
Sacramento, CA
Dear Mr. Mayberg,
I am a [friend, parent, brother, etc.] of [name of Detainee], who is a patient at Coalinga State Hospital. I have received some news about problems in your facility and am very concerned. I want assurance that he is receiving fair evaluations and proper treatment.
In addition to my questions about the medical care he receives, I would also like to confirm that his legal and civil rights are being upheld. I would like to schedule a conference with you, either in person or by telephone, and tour the Coalinga facility to help answer my questions and allay my concerns.
Sincerely,
[Name, Address, Phone, Email]
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
to send this message by email or to call Steven Mayberg on the phone:
Email: stephen.mayberg@dmh.ca.gov
Tel: (916) 654-2309
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Other Areas of Concern that you may wish to convey in your letters to Kramer and Mayberg:
- Lack of Professionally Administered Diagnostic Tests and Assessments
- Detainee rules for conduct and rights of appeal are in violation of their civil liberties under the law.
- Staff are not held to a standard of accountability and are allowed to make arbitrary, capricious and inconsistent rules.
- Staff or Police assault on Detainees and other misconduct or abuse.
- Insufficient contact between Patients and yourself due to visiting restrictions and lack of telephones.
- Lack of exercise opportunities.
- Problems sending and receiving mail. Mail is frequently lost or unlawfully opened.
- Ridiculous package restrictions and inability to easily send shoes, medical necessities and many other items that they should be able to have and that pose no threat to the safety and security of the institution.
- Inability to send books directly from publishers or legitimate vendors (why must these items be purchased from only two administration-selected vendors who also have a very limited selection?). Neither of these vendors have a reasonable selection of titles. -One of them sells only Christian-themed books while the other only sells unpopular remainders.
- Censorship. If books, movies and games are legal and allowed in the community at large and even in prison, why is it that Civil -Detainees (who, after all, are not be held for reasons of "punishment") are not allowed these same titles?
- Money sent to or from Detainees is frequently lost or delayed. A system of conservatorship is unlawfully imposed on Detainees.
- Educational and treatment materials are frequently prevented from reaching Detainees.
Sex-offender ghettos: Get-tough laws force predators to move but do little to make kids safer
Sunday, October 7, 2007
By Mary Beth Lane
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
"There is not a shred of evidence to suggest that the laws do anything to protect children," he said. "There is a growing consensus in the treatment, law-enforcement and victim's-rights communities that these laws are feel-good, fear-driven political measures that actually make the community less safe."
full story
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