To All Confinees in Every So-Called Sex-Offender Commitment Facility in the U.S.

The below came from The Legal Pad, Volume 4, Issue 3 (March, 2020), p. 1, published by Cyrus Gladden from the gulag in Moose Lake, Minnesota.  To All Confinees in Every So-Called Sex-Offender Commitment Facility in the U.S.:  By Cyrus Gladden  Right now, I am trying to collect a centralized list/database of certain sex offenders in each other sex-offender commitment facility as a Committee of Correspondence. The most immediate aim of this Committee will be to frequently share all information significant to us, to foster uniform agreement on positions of critical importance to us, and to compare notes on all…

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The truth could set them free: After He Found California’s Indefinite Detention of Sex Offenders Wasn’t Working, the State Shut Him Down and Destroyed His Research

Psychologist Jesus Padilla was forbidden to complete research that could have set many indefinitely committed people free. He died with the work unfinished. By: STEVEN YODER | FROM THE APRIL 2020 ISSUE of Reason.com — In late 2006, a public defender went before a Napa County judge to argue for his client’s freedom. Rex McCurdy, a 49-year-old man, had been detained for seven years at Atascadero State Hospital under a 1995 California law authorizing “civil commitment” of people who have been convicted of sex offenses, a practice that keeps them confined long after they have completed their sentences. In 1983,…

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Abolish Pre-crime in Minnesota

Pre-crime is dystopian science fiction. No one should be imprisoned for imaginary future crimes. But right now, Minnesota is warehousing 731 individuals in a prison masquerading as a treatment facility — for what they might do in the future.

Hopelessness pervades this system, where men are detained indefinitely, outside the traditional protections of the criminal law, with little prospect of release. Legal scholars have likened Minnesota’s system of pre-crime preventative detention to a “domestic Guantanamo Bay.” The British High Court has called it a “flagrant denial” of human rights. These shadow prisoners are 8 times more likely to leave in a body bag than to ever be set free.

The price tag to taxpayers is $110 million per year. The cost in terms of human lives is unspeakably tragic. And the threat to American values of liberty and due process is real.

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What Effect Does Treatment Have on Sex Offense Recidivism — Experts Domestic & Abroad Sound Off

The below came from “The Legal Pad” Volume 3, Issue 12, (December 10, 2019) pp. 7-8 published by Cyrus P. Gladden, II from the gulag in Moose Lake, Minnesota.   I.  The View in the U.S.: There is no scientific consensus or clear evidence that sex offender treatment has any significant impact on sex crime recidivism     Anne R. Izzi, “Constitutional Law – The Cage a Fetish Can Build: Proposed Legislative Reform for Civil Commitment Procedures in Sexually Violent Predator Laws,” 39 Western New England Law Review 141, at pp. 145-46 (2017), states:  …[T]he facilities that do offer treatment are not…

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Going For Wins in Sexually Violent Predator Cases

By Allen Frances, MD July 8, 2011 During the past year, I have been involved as an expert witness for the defense in 14 SVP cases (tried in California, Washington, and Iowa). My role has been to clarify what is meant by the wording of the Paraphilia section in DSM-IV. And it certainly does badly need explaining. The DSM-IV Paraphilia section is written far too imprecisely to meet the high standard of precision needed in a legal context. This is because DSM-IV was written primarily for clinicians– not for lawyers, judges, forensic evaluators, and juries. I wish we had done…

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How The Use of Improper Statistics and Unverified Data Corrupts The Judicial Process In Sex Offence Cases (2018)

This is an excellent overview from the 30,000 foot view, of the problems that continue to fuel draconian and unscientific sex-related laws.  As Cucolo & Perlin note, “judicial decisions involving sexual offender[s]…rely improperly on inaccurate and underdeveloped statistics as well as unverified and outdated information.”  This article specifically addresses pre-crime preventative detention laws, calling them explicitly punitive.  And concludes by exploring the principle of “therapeutic jurisprudence” which may offer an alternative to unending and unthinking punishment.         More about the authors Heather Ellis Cucolo Heather is an adjunct professor and current facilitator of the dual degree program…

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Authorities retaliate against advocates

The system routinely punishes dissent voiced by those under their control. Advocates who speak out against injustice in the criminal legal system are especially vulnerable to retaliation by unscrupulous prosecutors, judges, and others in positions of official power over their lives or the lives of their loved ones. Nowhere is this more true than in systems of pre-crime preventative detention where a persons indefinite detention may be prolonged at the whim of the authorities based on nothing more than subjective impression, rather than any concrete overt act. This brazenly unethical behavior is another obstacle to advocating for, and securing the…

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How many are held under “sex offender civil commitment” laws?

Data is important for advocacy.  But shadow prisons are so shrouded in secrecy that no one actually knows how many people are locked away in these “treatment” facilities in the U.S.  Here is a brief look at what we know (or don’t) and why the number that you often see cited is wrong.

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Should we push candidates to reform the Sex Offense Registry?

Blank & Pink sent out a “2020 Election Survey” in vol. 9 issue 6 of their newsletter (p.25) One of 4 questions solicited opinions from members of the Black & Pink family living behind the walls on whether sex-related offense policy should be a focus of their political advocacy during this presidential election cycle.  YES, and here is why: 

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Civil Commitment in New York is Worse Than Prison

Shadow prisoners held for “treatment” at CNYPC in Marcy, NY experience conditions of confinment more explicitly punitive and restrictive than those in the actual prison system in New York. A new letter to state elected officials from people living behind the walls describes the desperation that pervades systems of pre-crime preventative detention in the U.S.  Ever wonder why we at Just Future use the term “shadow prisoners” to refer to people in so-called “sex offender civil commitment” facilities?  Read this letter.

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