San Francisco board rebrands ‘convicted felon’ as ‘justice-involved person,’ sanitizes other crime lingo
Crime-ridden San Francisco has introduced new sanitized language for criminals, getting rid of words such as “offender” and “addict” while changing “convicted felon” to “justice-involved person.”
The Board of Supervisors adopted the changes last month even as the city reels from one of the highest crime rates in the country and staggering inequality exemplified by pervasive homelessness alongside Silicon Valley wealth.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, from now on a convicted felon or an offender released from custody will be known as a “formerly incarcerated person,” or a “justice-involved” person or just a “returning resident.”
A juvenile “delinquent” will now be called a “young person with justice system involvement,” or a “young person impacted by the juvenile justice system.”
And drug addicts or substance abusers, meanwhile, will become “a person with a history of substance use.”
“We don’t want people to be forever labeled for the worst things that they have done,” Supervisor Matt Haney told the newspaper. “We want them ultimately to become contributing citizens, and referring to them as felons is like a scarlet letter that they can never get away from.”
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People First Language instead of Convict, Criminal, Felon, Inmate, Offender, Prisoner.
Person First Language instead of Convict, Criminal, Felon, Inmate, Offender, Prisoner.
https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/451099-language-matters-for-justice-reform
By: DeAnna Hoskins is president and CEO of Just Leadership USA, a national, member-driven advocacy organization that seeks to cut the U.S. correctional population in half by 2030. She spent time in the State of Ohio’s correctional system and previously served as a senior advisor at the Department of Justice and as the director of reentry for Hamilton, Ohio Board of County Commissioners.
I am going to send the “Hill” link for “Language Matters for Justice Reform” to as many media outlets as I can. I did not find in the article, though, the proper way to refer to someone who has committed a sexual offense. A month or two ago, someone in a post at the FAC Website gave the proper terminology to use, which I have forgotten. Can anyone tell me what it is? I would like to add this information when I send the link. Thank you.
I just found it in the talking points from Dr. Emily Horowitz’s FAC membership call on Feb. 7, 2019: “a person who has a prior sex offense conviction”.
A special thank you to anyone else who researched this and sent me the info.
A Peron Who Has Been Directly Impacted By The Criminal Justice System Basically A Directly Impacted Individual: (a person who committed a crime; a formerly incarcerated or an incarcerated person; a person with a felony conviction.)
Persons required to register. Or former sex offenders. The latter has been used by Miami ACLU and is statistically accurate without sweeping things under the rug.
“Sex offenders” is a misnomer referring more accurately to those at risk of committing a sex offense. The sex offender registry (and even background checks) do a poor job of capturing that population, when you consider the statistics regarding (a) who is committing sex offenses, (b) re-offense rates of those convicted.
Are they changing the designation for RSOs as well?
Maybe I’ll move to CA.
My family member who is on the registry would not mind what he was called if government at all levels would review the evidence and realize public registries and residency restrictions are making absolutely no difference and laws need to be changed.
Calling him something pleasant sounding while making him register for life is the problem.
What’s holding back reform is that the public assumes that your family member, and others similarly situated, is a “sex offender,” which statistically is no longer correct. The entire debate is weakened severely by use of the wrong terminology by journalists, elected officials, and the public.