Archive for March 22, 2007
push against residency restrictions finally paying off
Mar 22nd
Out of Maryland comes the news that legislators are considering shifting their focus away from residency restrictions. I cannot tell you how much this gladdens me. Finally the push against residency restrictions is beginning to pay off and hopefully more states will follow suit and try to cultivate legislation that will actually accomplish the goals they seek.
Sen. Norman Stone and Del. John Olszewski Jr. now say the focus of their bills is likely to move away from residential restrictions toward other legal remedies.
The possible changes come after studies conducted in states where similar laws have been passed or considered conclude that such restrictions have little effect.
In their current form, these bills would be standard fare – restricting how close sex offenders can live to “areas populated by children”.
Both Stone and Olszewski, however, say their bills may be altered to reflect the growing body of opinion in legislative and law-enforcement circles nationwide that residential restrictions are ineffective and, in some cases, counterproductive.
A report presented to the Florida legislature in 2005 was among the first to call residential restrictions into question, saying that statistics showed no decrease in the likelihood that convicted child sex offenders would commit new offenses, despite the presence of restrictions.
The Florida report went on to say that “such policies may ultimately be counterproductive,†noting that residential restrictions tended to cause many offenders to move into small-town and rural areas where they were poorly supervised by law enforcement authorities and had little or no access to psychiatric treatment, or drove them underground, where they were not monitored or treated at all.
Absolutely on point. The article also does a good job of highlighting other states where these laws are being questioned.
This analysis has been echoed in states like Texas, Colorado, Kansas and Minnesota, where legislatures have rejected residential restriction bills, as have cities including Topeka, Kan., Maplewood, Minn., and Covington, Ky. Legislatures in other states, including Georgia and Oklahoma, are revisiting their residential restriction statutes.
However, it seems that Iowa is now being looked at as the vanguard of this movement. Lots more after the jump, so click on the link to read the full post.
Playboy causes stir on Vandy campus
Mar 22nd
Playboy scouts are causing controversy (the usual kind) on the campus of Vanderbilt. This story has absolutely nothing to do with this blog. I just want to share the chuckle that Vandy’s student newspaper (that originally posted the Playboy ad and has since published a contrary editorial) is named “The Vanderbilt Hustler“.
Yes, I’m juvenile.
Changes
Mar 22nd
As you can see, there are a few changes on the blog. I’m still working on it and for that I apologize. Here are some of the things I’ve done:
- Removed the top graphic to make more room for text. While visually appealing, it was moving the first post halfway down the page.
- Cleaned up the syndication options. Now all you have to do is click on either "bookmark" or "subscribe" on the right and a nifty window pops up with an extensive list of services for you to choose your favorite from to subscribe to this blog.
- Right below that, I’ve also added an e-mail subscription link. If
you’d prefer to keep track of this blog via e-mail, you can just sign
up there and you’ll get an e-mail digest with the latest posts. - I’ve moved the "recent comments" to the left, so that pushed up the "recent posts" on the right. This way, you the reader have full access to the various posts on this site.
- Now at the end of each post, you will see several links: "Email this, save to delicious, digg this, technorati cosmos, etc". This just increases functionality for each post and allows you to do what you want with it.
- Finally, I’ve added a live feed from PD Stuff, right below the recent posts.
Any and all suggestions are absolutely welcome. If you think there are redundant sidebars on the site, please let me know. If you think it’s getting too cluttered, let me know. If you’d like to see something that isn’t there, let me know. You can leave a comment here or e-mail me. Thanks for reading!
Connecticut’s juvenile problem
Mar 22nd
Connecticut has a juvenile problem. No, the state isn’t childish, but it is imprisoning juveniles with adults more than any other state in the country. D.C. based Campaign for Youth Justice has released a report [.pdf] on the state of the juvenile justice system in the country and according to that report, Connecticut is the worst offender.
State judicial officials say the numbers are higher because Connecticut is one of only three states that automatically prosecute children 16 and older as adults. New York and North Carolina are the others.
But Connecticut officials admit the rising numbers are also due to a shortage of suitable programs for children ages 16 and 17 – a situation some lawmakers and advocates want to change by passing a law raising the age for being treated as an adult to 18. The bill is expected to go to a vote before the General Assembly’s judiciary committee in the next two weeks.
The prosecution of offenders under 18 as adults is particularly damaging to youths of color, the report said. In Connecticut, blacks and Latinos constitute less than 30 percent of the total youth population but they make up 80 percent of the young men in the adult correction system, the report said.
The Youth Justice report also said locking youths up with adults does not make communities safer. The report cited a study comparing recidivism of youths waived to adult criminal court in Florida with those retained in juvenile court. The study found that those in the adult group were more likely to be rearrested and commit more serious new offenses.
The services available to 16 and 17 year old offenders is also severely lacking:
As one of the examples of the hurdles court officials face, [Director of Court Support Services William] Carbone said current state law does not allow 16- and 17-year-olds to access services through the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. They must be 18 to be eligible.
"Our services for 16- and 17-year-olds are minimal," Carbone said. "So when you’re faced with someone who has committed a crime and been convicted, if you don’t have programs appropriate for that age group, you’re going to see more of them incarcerated."
As of 2005, Connecticut had 383 juveniles incarcerated with adults.
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