Violator registry is growing as tech-savvy predators put a greater burden on officers
By Jerry Markon
Washington Post
Monday, November 23, 2009
The pursuit of Lee Shelton began the moment the convicted sex offender was released from prison.
It ended months later with a
U.S. Marshals Service helicopter hovering near a D.C. junior high school as Shelton kissed
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Added by The Watchmen on November 23, 2009 at 11:47am —
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The law is made up of rules and standards.
Here is an example of a rule, established by the
Supreme Court in
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Added by The Watchmen on November 23, 2009 at 11:11am —
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In a recent
79-page decision, a Manhattan judge could well have stopped after the first four sentences of his concluding paragraph and still conveyed his main point: that Fernando Bermudez was no longer guilty of murder.
Instead, the judge, Justice John Cataldo of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, tacked on a fifth sentence that ended with t
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Added by The Watchmen on November 23, 2009 at 11:06am —
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By JOHN ELIGON
A Manhattan judge ruled on Thursday that a man who had spent 18 years in prison for murder was innocent of
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Added by The Watchmen on November 13, 2009 at 6:24am —
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By Matthew Spolar and James Osborne
The Philadelphia Inquirer
A New Jersey company, watching closely as officials consider closing the Camden County jail and privatizing corrections services, has filed an application to build a facility in central Camden.
County spokeswoman Joyce Gabriel said she wa
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Added by The Watchmen on November 1, 2009 at 4:56pm —
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By Liliana Segura, AlterNet
Posted on October 26, 2009, Printed on October 27, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/143499/
The tragic unraveling of the case against Cameron Todd Willingham -- the Texas man executed in 2004 for killing his own daughters by supposedly setting fire to his house -- seems to have crossed a major threshold in the debate over the death penalty in the past several weeks. For the first time in rece
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Added by The Watchmen on October 27, 2009 at 10:14pm —
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Written by John Leland for the
New York Times, October 17, 2009.
COXSACKIE, N.Y. — Allen Jacobs lived hard for his 50 years, and when his liver finally shut down he faced the kind of death he did not want. On a recent afternoon Mr. Jacobs lay in a hospital bed staring blankly at the ceiling, his eyes sunk in his skull, his skin lusterles
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Added by The Watchmen on October 17, 2009 at 7:03pm —
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Amnesty International has appealed to the state to commute the sentence on Khristian Oliver, 32, who is due to die on November 5.
He was sentenced to death in 1999 for murdering a man whose home Oliver was burgling. The victim was shot in the face and beaten with his own rifle.
It later emerged that while deciding whether he should be given the death penalty, jurors consult
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Added by The Watchmen on October 16, 2009 at 12:13pm —
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Carrie Johnson |
Washington Post | Friday, October 16, 2009
The Senate's second-ranking Democrat introduced a bill Thursday that would eliminate the sentencing disparity between crack and powdered cocaine, an issue that has frustrated judges, civil rights advocates and drug reform proponents for more than
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Added by The Watchmen on October 16, 2009 at 7:13am —
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Female inmates say 2 Okla. governor's mansion workers raped them; prosecutors investigating
TIM TALLEY
AP News
Oct 12, 2009 18:12 EST
Prosecutors are investigating claims that the former head chef and chief groundskeeper at the Oklahoma governor's mansion raped three female prison inmates assigned to work on the
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Added by The Watchmen on October 13, 2009 at 7:18am —
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By Jerry Markon
Washington Post
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has ordered a review of a little-known Bush administration policy requiring some defendants to waive their right to DNA testing even though that right is guaranteed in a landmark federal law, officials said.
The practice of usin
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Added by The Watchmen on October 12, 2009 at 5:36am —
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Ohio's Review After Botched Injection May Have Wide Impact
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post
Monday, October 12, 2009
Romell Broom knew he was about to die when the Ohio prison warden came to his cell, escorted by guards, and read his death warrant. A court had rejected his final appeal.
Soon, t
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Added by The Watchmen on October 12, 2009 at 5:27am —
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On any given day, about one in every 10 young male high school dropouts is in jail or juvenile detention, compared with one in 35 young male high school graduates, according to a new study of the effects of dropping out of school in an America where demand for low-skill workers is plunging.
The picture is even bleaker for African-Americans, with nearly one in four young black male
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Added by The Watchmen on October 12, 2009 at 5:23am —
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The Senate on Monday passed the Safe Prisons Communications Act of 2009 (S.251), which allows states to petition the Federal Communications Commission for the authority to "jam" - or block the use of cell phones from prison.
Under current law, the FCC does not allow cell phone jamming of any kind.
The bill will now move to the House of Representatives for consideration.
"I and all Marylanders were shocked and dismayed to hear about this new organized crime practice of us
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Added by The Watchmen on October 7, 2009 at 9:10pm —
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Updated: Tuesday, 15 Sep 2009, 8:36 AM CDT
Published : Tuesday, 15 Sep 2009, 8:36 AM CDT
Dallas, TX - Serving time without committing the crime. A new Texas law lends financial support to convicts cleared of their charges.
Timothy Cole was wrongfully convicted of rape in the mid-80's.
He was sentenced to 25 years behind bars, where he died of a massive heart attack.
Cole was later exonerated through DNA tests.
He's one of nearly 40 DNA exonorees in Texas who sat behind
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Added by The Watchmen on September 25, 2009 at 10:57am —
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Updated: Monday, 14 Sep 2009, 5:14 PM CDT
Published : Monday, 14 Sep 2009, 5:14 PM CDT
Austin, TX (myFOXaustin.com) - A Travis County grand jury has indicted Wayne Johnson, a former parole officer, for trying to bribe money from a parolee, in exchange for removing his electronic ankle monitoring device.
Johnson was busted in an undercover sting that happened in April. The parolee, says he was arrested for having 108 pounds of marijuana in 2007. According to the parole, he
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Added by The Watchmen on September 25, 2009 at 10:55am —
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By Carrie Johnson
Washington Post
Friday, September 11, 2009
Reports of sexual misconduct by prison staff members with federal inmates doubled over the past eight years, and government watchdogs called Thursday for more training and sensitivity to combat the growing problem.
After studying hundreds of
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Added by The Watchmen on September 25, 2009 at 10:53am —
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By AMANDA LEE MYERS (AP) – 2 days ago
PHOENIX — Sixteen Arizona corrections employees have been fired, suspended or otherwise disciplined for their roles in the death of an inmate left in an outdoor holding cell for four hours in triple-digit heat and for a "wait-them-out" practice at the prison where she died.
Three of those disciplined were fired, two stepped down in place of being fired, 10 received suspensions ranging from 40 to 80 hours, and one was demoted. Two oth
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Added by The Watchmen on September 25, 2009 at 10:51am —
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More than 100 federal corrections officials admit engaging in illegal sexual contact with inmates, and more than two dozen of them smuggled in weapons, drugs and more to cover up their misconduct, an investigation has found.
A detailed report from the Justice Department's inspector general's office says progress in implementing programs to prevent staff sexual abuse has been "mixed" despite a 2006 law that increased penalties for officials engaging in sex with prisoners.
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Added by The Watchmen on September 25, 2009 at 10:50am —
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The New York Times
In 1996, Congress passed a law that made it much harder for inmates to challenge abusive treatment. It has contributed significantly to the bad conditions — including the desperate overcrowding — that prevail today. The law must be fixed.
In the name of clamping down on frivolous lawsuits, the Prison Refor
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Added by The Watchmen on September 25, 2009 at 10:47am —
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