Punishment Without Crime: Technical Violations Drive Mass Incarceration

Introduction The use of supervised release to oppress formerly incarcerated people is among the American legal system’s most egregious injustices. America is very creative in finding ways to suppress the rights of people living in the community who are on supervised release. Approaches like the notorious sex registry are infamous examples of the American penal system oppressing formerly incarcerated people with draconian, unjust, and objectively unsupportable methods. One of the criminal justice system’s more subtle forms of human rights suppression comes in the form of “technical violations” — infractions of rules imposed by the state on people who are…