Tuesday • April 16 • 2024
Vol.XVI • No.XVI
Manchester, N.H.
A bill SB371 to give judges the discretion to punish individuals who sexually assault a child with surgical castration advances from Senate Judiciary C. Baton Rouge Senator Regina Barrow’s bill allows for the sentencing of surgical castration if the victim is under the age of 13.
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A federal court says privacy rights are diminished due to the proliferation of video cameras throughout society
Law enforcement in Kansas recorded the front of a man’s home for 68 days straight, 15 hours a day, and obtained evidence to prove him guilty on 16 charges. The officers did not have a search warrant, using a camera on a pole positioned across the street to capture Bruce Hay’s home. A federal court ruled on Tuesday that it was fine for law enforcement to do so, in what’s potentially a major reduction in privacy law.
“Mr. Hay had no reasonable expectation of privacy in a view of the front of his house,” said the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in its decision on U.S. vs Hay. “As video cameras proliferate throughout society, regrettably, the reasonable expectation of privacy from filming is diminished.”
Read the full article
April 4, 2024
Sandy RozekRetroactivity, Sex Offender Registry, WI SB874, Wisconsin
By Sandy . . . It is a given that if one is convicted of a crime, some sort of punishment will follow. Why? It has been thus from the beginning of time. The hope is that the punishment will evoke a repulsion toward the criminal act and the unpleasantness that resulted from it and cause a turning away from it. If the lesson is learned as intended, society benefits.
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The CSG Justice Center’s nonpartisan analysts and justice experts have created two new resources to assist your state in improving community safety:
The CSG Justice Center is available to help you unpack this data and dig deeper into how your state can improve community safety! Please contact Madeleine Dardeau at mdardeau@csg.org to schedule a meeting with our expert staff.
Jurisdictions across the country are advancing reforms to expand and improve diversion, demonstrating diversion’s potential to transform youth justice in ways that protect public safety and enhance youth success. Related to: Youth Justice, Racial Justice.
By Richard MendelMarch 20, 2024
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Hear Testimony on Why the Registry is Unconsitutional
Tom has been actively involved with Citizens for Criminal Justice Reform (CCJR) since July 2011, just six months after the organization was founded. His contributions to CCJR have been invaluable, as he has served as a faithful board member and volunteer, dedicating his time and effort to the organization's mission.
His roles within CCJR have been crucial to its success:
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Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has issued a full pardon for a Loudoun County father who he says was wrongfully prosecuted and convicted for standing up for his daughter at a 2021 Loudoun County School Board meeting after she was sexually assaulted at school.
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The Citizens for Criminal Justice Reform Board has decided to temporarily suspend all operations from June 2023 until early 2024. This pause is essential as we contemplate the future direction of our organization.
During this period, we will not be accepting any new memberships or donations, as we carefully evaluate the possibilities of reorganization or dissolution. Your understanding and patience during this reflective phase are greatly appreciated. We will keep you updated on any developments regarding the future of our organization.
CONCORD, N.H. — New Hampshire is starting an Automated Victim Information and Notification System, to keep crime victims aware of an offender's status via text messages, emails and phone calls. Victim advocates will be registering crime victims, who will then maintain a personal profile to update their notification preferences and contact information. WATCH VIDEO
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Fifty years ago, the United States embarked on a path of mass incarceration that has led to a staggering increase in the correctional population. Today, nearly two million people - disproportionately Black Americans - are living in prisons and jails instead of their communities. In the early 1970s this count was 360,000.
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Families of suspect, victim meet to reach settlement
https://www.wmur.com/article/hit-and-run-sentence-restorative-justice/42399541
NASHUA, N.H. —
A man who crashed into a person on the side of a New Hampshire highway who was helping victims of a car crash was given a suspended sentence Wednesday after taking part in a restorative justice process.
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A New York Times "op-doc" posted this week zeroes in on a persistent myth that has helped inspire and sustain harsh policies aimed at sex offenders: the idea that their recidivism rate is "frightening and high," as Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy put it in a pair of cases decided a decade and a half ago. David Feige, a former public defender who directed Untouchable, a 2016 documentary about sex offenders, shows how an uncorroborated assertion in a 1986 Psychology Today article continues to influence the politicians who pass laws and the judges who uphold them.
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WASHINGTON —
New data from the Department of Justice is reporting the number of people who tested positive for COVID-19 in U.S. prisons.
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Interesting Study from the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology
SEE .PDF File below
"Researchers and community agencies need to explore the needs of this forgotten population, especially as the country grapples with the loneliness associated with COVID-19 and various levels of quarantine. Individuals impacted by the incarceration of a loved one already have limited access to their loved ones behind bars. COVID-19 has dramatically decreased the amount and types of communication available to these individuals. Family members and friends, outside of prison walls, are also major sources of support for incarcerated individuals as they are released from prison (Sirois,2019). More than two million people are incarcerated in various facilities throughout the United States (Sawyer & Wagner, 2020; The Sentencing Project, 2020). Think about the number of individuals impacted by the incarceration of a loved one. Each of those incarcerated individuals have mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, children, aunts, uncles, cousins, and others. There are millions more impacted by incarceration, not accounted for in the two million incarcerated throughout the United States. The secondary prisonization of family members and friends, outside of prison walls, needs to be more fully explored, so that their needs are being met, which might enable them to continue providing invaluable support to individuals who cycle through our prison system."
