A Federal Judge in the Northern District of Illinois has DENIED the IL Department of Correction’s Motion to Dismiss in a case challenging the DOC’s policy of restricting internet access to parolees.
The plaintiffs, through their rock-star attorneys, Adele Nicholas and Mark Weinberg, are persons who are required to register as sex offenders who are challenging the IL DOC’s policy. They claim that the restriction on internet use, among other things, “inhibits their rehabilitation and interferes with their efforts to reintegrate into their communities.”
The IL DOC tried to have the Plaintiff’s case dismissed. The Judge ruled the case should proceed.
In today’s world, where people rely on the internet to find employment, communicate with family, obtain access to news, banking, resources and other information necessary to function, the outcome of this case will be critical.
You can read the order here: Tucker v. Baldwin – IL II Case – Order
While we are on the discussion of internet usage, even though this is not quite on the subject of this particular FAC post, I sit here in shock over what I have been reading.
These are two articles from the New York Times on the proliferation of CP photos and videos online. I have always wondered why our society spends so much money and effort to put people in prison for what they view in their own home. I am not condoning such behavior in any way but have always felt that it does nothing to stop the problem, and these two NY Times articles prove it. What is out there online has exploded and that is where the problem lies.
As one law enforcement official is stated as saying in New Jersey, “…the access is so easy. You get 9,000,000 people in the state of New Jersey. Based upon statistics, we can probably arrest 400,000 people (for CP).” If you have the stomach for it (which I found very difficult and had to skip over a lot of it), you will see that continuing to deal with the problem by arresting individuals for what they have been viewing is not even putting a dent in the problem. They need to be going after the producers and tech companies who are enabling them. If there is nothing online to see, then there will be no viewing.
I do not know if you will be able to read these articles. The NY Times is now charging me $1 a week to have access to their articles.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/09/28/us/child-sex-abuse.html?module=inline
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/29/us/takeaways-child-sex-abuse.html
In addition to the findings by the NY Times, I am reading that women going topless in public will no longer be a crime in certain situations in Stillwater ,OK; but as always, you will still be doing prison time and added to the registry if you happen to photograph a minor who is shirtless. I know that there are many men out there who do not have a problem with this ruling, and I understand that many men are made very different from women, but our society has no common sense. Women are now allowed to go topless in some areas, NY City allows some public nudity now, video games are pushing the limit, what is seen in movie theaters and on TV would put people in prison in real life, as our society has no limits as to what is now out there and available to all people, including minors. The standards have dropped so low in this country, except for registrants where they have only been tightened.
https://www.stwnewspress.com/news/city-officials-having-to-consider-legality-of-women-being-topless/article_83820b10-388f-58b6-b7bd-195ae09adc27.html
This is the most significant article I’ve seen on the subject in a long time, a valuable post on this forum, and worthy of its own FAC discussion topic. And notice what is NOT mentioned anywhere in the article, what has utterly and completely failed to slow the proliferation of such material: registration laws!
We all love to hate the New York Times, but they are reporting here on something that is very real. You’ll rarely see them generate hack work such as, “police arrest 67 for non-compliant vehicles.”
SarahF you are a great writer. I hope you are volunteering your skills. Please keep these coming!
Jacob, thank you for your words of encouragement as I sometimes worry that I am “overdoing it”. Yes, I am a FAC volunteer working on the media committee.
JJJJ, you are right about the internet access laws in Florida. I happen to be one of the fortunate on probation who has access. It took me about 18 months to gain access. As you said, it is limited (big one is NO social media of ANY kind) and it is monitored. ALL access is monitored. I found that out the hard way. Almost. I can have a “dumb” computer and there are no issues. However, with the watch-dog program “they” installed on my laptop, not only can they where I go online, “they” can look at ANYTHING that pops up on my screen.
How do it know? I wrote a letter in Word. Never went online. Printed it out and mailed it to a friend It was brought up by my therapist.
Even though I was rather upset about that, I thank God that I found it out before things got really complicated. Like I deal in confidential client information. Stuff that I am allowed access to by the client, but DOC/therapist is not allowed by Florida law to have. I talked to my business partner and we settled how to handle that, but it could have got really sticky as we deal with a half-billion dollars’ of property each year.
The moral to this story is even if you are offline, be aware you are likely being watched. Act accordingly. George Orwell has nothing on DOC.
By the way, I pay $35 per month to be watched online.
The courts are where the real help comes, albeit not all court cases.
Here is an email sent out today by FAMM (Families Against Mandatory Minimums).
Imagine you are charged with two crimes. You go to trial and the jury finds you guilty of one, but not the other.
Now, imagine at sentencing that the judge imposes a sentence for both crimes. You will serve time not only for the conduct for which the jury convicted you, but also for the acquitted conduct.
Not in our criminal justice system, you say.
But you’d be wrong.
In our criminal justice system, judges are directed to calculate the prison sentence using even acquitted conduct. FAMM has fought against the use of acquitted conduct for years, and has repeatedly urged the United States Sentencing Commission to end its use.
Using acquitted conduct at sentencing undermines citizens’ view of our justice system as fair and balanced. FAMM members tell us they cannot understand why our sentencing rules direct judges to count conduct that a jury has examined and rejected — and we ourselves find it hard to explain.
Now, we are taking the fight to the U.S. Supreme Court. FAMM has filed an amicus brief in a case, Asaro v. United States, asking the court to review and then end the practice once and for all.
We asked our members in prison to tell us their stories that we could use in our brief, and we heard from many people. We included some of their experiences in our brief, which you can read here: https://famm.org/wp-content/uploads/asaro-amicus-brief-famm.pdf
As you may be aware, there is a blanket policy for former sex offenders released from prison into probation, here in Florida. That policy completely and totally forbids any sort of internet usage regardless of the criminal charges. (Probationers mostly carry old-fashioned flip phones for that reason – they don’t dare access navigation, weather apps, browsers, streaming music etc.)
The probationer can have a mental health treatment provider draft a “safety plan” that will allow limited, monitored access, but it is rare that these providers are willing to even consider drafting a safety plan. And the fees are incredibly expensive.
(A side note: There is no longer a parole system here in Florida. It was abolished in 1991. Anyone adjudicated before that date, however, still technically qualifies for parole. Of course the probation system is quite active.)
What happens to the spouse living in the same home? Do they have unlimited access to the internet? A person cannot function in today’s society without the internet.
As a volunteer on the FAC Media Committee, I daily search for stories where I have to use that 3-letter word that begins with an S. Then I respond when appropriate. I am emailing all Florida Legislators in hopes that even one legislator will understand what a travesty the registry has become. Could I be “shut down”?