Unlike other crimes, when a sex offender has done his time, he doesn't always regain his liberty. 16 states now have laws that allow civil commitment of sex offenders after their prison sentences are up.

These laws have been upheld in the past--the states argue the men are too dangerous to be released--but new criticism is emerging because the laws often punish mentally ill offenders for their thoughts rather than their actions.

In yearly review hearings, the men are judged by their sexual tastes and fantasies — or what psychiatrists suppose to be their fantasies — as well as their performance on psychological tests, their attitudes toward authority and their willingness to acknowledge their crimes and disorders.

Many are rapists or child molesters — and the fear that they might commit more of the same crimes is grave. In 1998 New Jersey — like other states reacting to murders by sex offenders with previous convictions — authorized the commitment of anyone who has served time for a sex crime and is found to have a "mental abnormality or personality disorder" that makes him likely to commit another crime. These men are to be given treatment — chiefly group therapy — until they are judged no longer dangerous.

Five years later, only a handful have been released, and critics of the commitment process — psychiatrists, civil-liberties advocates and even some early supporters of the law — are concerned that it is merely an exercise rigged to keep sex offenders locked up for a lifetime.

Most of this long article focuses on New Jersey's Violent Sexual Predator Law, since New York Times reporters were granted access hearings there. Yet they report that much of the system is still shrouded in secrecy.

Critics say the hearings deny offenders both the legal protections of a criminal prosecution and the sound medical grounding of a regular civil commitment case. They say the diagnoses — framed by lawmakers rather than doctors — are so vague they could apply to millions of people. By rummaging through a patient's past and psyche, they say, the state can always find a reason to keep him confined.

Several people who have worked in the system told of prosecutors' shopping for psychiatric opinions and of exaggerated, even erroneous testimony and public defenders too overwhelmed to organize a proper defense.

We find the process by which these offenders are kept in indefinite custody very chilling--from the way they are notified they will be transferred to another facility for testing just days before their scheduled release, to the testing procedures and to the small percentage who ultimately gain release.

And in related news, a new Justice Department study shows that sex offenders are less likely to reoffend than other incarcerated offenders:

To settle a lawsuit, New York has agreed to pay almost double the current rates for indigent defense lawyers in New York.

Under the settlement, the assigned counsel will be paid $75 an hour for work on felony cases and $60 an hour for work on misdemeanor criminal cases, as of Jan. 1. It would be the first increase in the rates since 1985. The settlement came one day before an appellate court was scheduled to hear arguments in the case.

A series of articles in The New York Times in 2001 reported that 38 years after the United States Supreme Court ruled in Gideon v. Wainwright that indigent defendants had a right to legal counsel, the representation given to the poor routinely fell short of even the minimal standards recommended by legal experts.

New York City in particular relies on private lawyers to represent the poor more than most big cities, because it lacks a public defender's office. The Legal Aid Society, a nonprofit organization, was supposed to function like a public defender's office, representing nearly all indigent defendants. But Legal Aid was weakened after a dispute with former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, and it represents only about half of the hundreds of thousands of people arrested each year.

Both sides seem pleased with the rate hike.

Assemblywoman Helene E. Weinstein, chairwoman of the judiciary committee, praised the lawyers association for bringing the lawsuit, which she said documented "what many of us long argued, that the inadequacy of the assigned counsel rates resulted in New York's failure to meet our constitutional and statutory obligation."

Bump and Update: Now the school says it asked for the raid but had no idea the police would draw their weapons.

The ACLU says the execution of the raid was illegal:

Graham Boyd, director of the drug policy project for the American Civil Liberties Union [said], "You absolutely cannot bring police with guns drawn into a school." Boyd said police must suspect individual students of drug activity, then any action taken must target those suspects. He said investigators should have called individual suspected students to the principal's office to check their bags for drugs.

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Original Post, 11/7 3:20 pm

This is inexcusable. If it happened at the high school our kid attended, we would have been up in arms.

Fourteen cops, some with guns drawns, raided a South Carolina high school searching for.....marijuana. To top it off, they didn't find any.

Surveillance video from Stratford High School in Goose Creek shows 14 officers, some with guns drawn, ordering students to lie the ground as police searched for marijuana. Students who didn't comply with the orders quickly enough were reportedly handcuffed. Police didn't find any criminals in the armed sweep, but they say search dogs smelled drugs on a dozen backpacks.

Whoever ordered this raid should be fired. And if the principal agreed to it, he or she should go as well.

John Walters, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, discussed the idea of legalizing marijuana this morning on C-Span. You can watch and listen to his 24 minutes of disingenuous (at best) spin in real-time here.

Here's what came to one colleague's mind after viewing it:

The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic, and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie -- and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the State."

-- Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Propaganda Minister

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A new British scientific studyshows that a marijuana pill helps relieve pain from MS. Our clients have told us this for some time. But a pill available in the U.S., Marinol, according to our clients, has a tolerance factor. After a few months, the pill doesn't work as well. Smoking marijuana, on the other hand, we're told, doesn't lose its pain-relieving effect over time. Marinol is available with a doctor's prescription in the U.S.

The British study has been published in the Lancet medical journal. We don't know if the pill referred to is the same as Marinol.

[comments now closed]

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) met in New Orleans this weekend. One of the issues under consideration was the lack of adequate counsel provided to indigent defendants in Louisiana and other southern states. Hearings were held on Friday in conjunction with the ABA on the state of Gideon vs. Wainwright, the 40 year old Supreme Court decision guaranteeing the right of counsel to the indigent.

The bar association took testimony about the state of indigent defense in the South. "A Hearing on the Right to Counsel" marked the 40th anniversary of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that guarantees the right to an attorney.

....Poor criminal defendants in Louisiana and other Southern states are routinely denied their constitutional right to an attorney, leaving them languishing in jail without having been charged and more often than not forced into plea bargains, defense lawyers said Friday at a national conference in New Orleans.

The main culprits are a lack of financing and a judicial system that tolerates delays, the lawyers said. And it's the cases that fall under the public's radar -- the lower-level courts that handle traffic violations and misdemeanors -- where the poor's right to appointed attorneys remains ignored. "We have assembly line justice," said lawyer Stephen Bright, director of the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta. "And it's a pretty shoddy assembly line in most places."

Here's just one of the incredible horror stories:

[Lawyer Thomas] Lorenzi told the story of a man in Calcasieu who was jailed in December 2001 and left there until this past July, when he was finally assigned an attorney. Originally arrested in connection with a burglary, the man was released a week ago. He was never formally charged with any crime. "Nobody seems to know what happened," Lorenzi said.

You can read more stories in the the Calcasieu Parish study is available online here.

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) met in New Orleans this weekend. One of the issues under consideration was the lack of adequate counsel provided to indigent defendants in Louisiana and other southern states. Hearings were held on Friday in conjunction with the ABA on the state of Gideon vs. Wainwright, the 40 year old Supreme Court decision guaranteeing the right of counsel to the indigent.

The bar association took testimony about the state of indigent defense in the South. "A Hearing on the Right to Counsel" marked the 40th anniversary of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that guarantees the right to an attorney.

....Poor criminal defendants in Louisiana and other Southern states are routinely denied their constitutional right to an attorney, leaving them languishing in jail without having been charged and more often than not forced into plea bargains, defense lawyers said Friday at a national conference in New Orleans.

The main culprits are a lack of financing and a judicial system that tolerates delays, the lawyers said. And it's the cases that fall under the public's radar -- the lower-level courts that handle traffic violations and misdemeanors -- where the poor's right to appointed attorneys remains ignored. "We have assembly line justice," said lawyer Stephen Bright, director of the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta. "And it's a pretty shoddy assembly line in most places."

Here's just one of the incredible horror stories:

[Lawyer Thomas] Lorenzi told the story of a man in Calcasieu who was jailed in December 2001 and left there until this past July, when he was finally assigned an attorney. Originally arrested in connection with a burglary, the man was released a week ago. He was never formally charged with any crime. "Nobody seems to know what happened," Lorenzi said.

You can read more stories in the the Calcasieu Parish study is available online here.

According to the FBI Crime Report for 2002 released yesterday, marijuana arrests for 2002 were at a near record high.

Just received from NORML via email:

Marijuana Arrests For 2002 Near Record High Despite Feds' War On Terror, FBI Report Reveals

Pot Smokers Arrested In America At A Rate Of One Every 45 Seconds

Washington, DC: Police arrested an estimated 697,082 persons for marijuana violations in 2002, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual Uniform Crime Report, released yesterday afternoon. The total is among the highest ever recorded by the FBI, and comprised nearly half of all drug arrests in the United States.

"These numbers belie the myth that police do not target and arrest minor marijuana offenders," said Keith Stroup, Executive Director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), who noted that at current rates, a marijuana smoker is arrested every 45 seconds in America. "This effort is a tremendous waste of criminal justice resources that should be dedicated toward combating serious and violent crime, including the war on terrorism."

According to the FBI Crime Report for 2002 released yesterday, marijuana arrests for 2002 were at a near record high.

Just received from NORML via email:

Marijuana Arrests For 2002 Near Record High Despite Feds' War On Terror, FBI Report Reveals

Pot Smokers Arrested In America At A Rate Of One Every 45 Seconds

Washington, DC: Police arrested an estimated 697,082 persons for marijuana violations in 2002, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual Uniform Crime Report, released yesterday afternoon. The total is among the highest ever recorded by the FBI, and comprised nearly half of all drug arrests in the United States.

"These numbers belie the myth that police do not target and arrest minor marijuana offenders," said Keith Stroup, Executive Director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), who noted that at current rates, a marijuana smoker is arrested every 45 seconds in America. "This effort is a tremendous waste of criminal justice resources that should be dedicated toward combating serious and violent crime, including the war on terrorism."

Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton was sworn in a year ago. He promised to turn around the escalating crime rate. How has he performed?

Homicides are down 23% over the same period last year, with all violent crime down 4.5%. Arrests are up 12%. Complaints against police also have risen by 12% during Bratton's watch. Compared with crime statistics of other large American cities, only Los Angeles appears headed toward a significant drop in homicides this year.

...In his first report card, the civilian-run police commission that hired him concluded on Oct. 14 that Bratton's overall performance "exceeds all standards." Police Commission President David S. Cunningham, the lone vote last year on the commission to retain former LAPD Chief Bernard C. Parks, said Bratton has changed how he thinks about crime.

....Bratton vowed to pursue "assertive policing" while denouncing the beatings, thefts and evidence-planting that had plagued the Rampart Division's former gang unit. "You will not break the law to enforce the law," he warned repeatedly.

Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton was sworn in a year ago. He promised to turn around the escalating crime rate. How has he performed?

Homicides are down 23% over the same period last year, with all violent crime down 4.5%. Arrests are up 12%. Complaints against police also have risen by 12% during Bratton's watch. Compared with crime statistics of other large American cities, only Los Angeles appears headed toward a significant drop in homicides this year.

...In his first report card, the civilian-run police commission that hired him concluded on Oct. 14 that Bratton's overall performance "exceeds all standards." Police Commission President David S. Cunningham, the lone vote last year on the commission to retain former LAPD Chief Bernard C. Parks, said Bratton has changed how he thinks about crime.

....Bratton vowed to pursue "assertive policing" while denouncing the beatings, thefts and evidence-planting that had plagued the Rampart Division's former gang unit. "You will not break the law to enforce the law," he warned repeatedly.

Cathy Young's Boston Globe column today, Those accused of rape have rights, too, explains the importance of the rights of the accused in a sexual assault case--and using recent high-profile cases as examples, shows how overbroad application of rape shield laws are unjust.

Rape is a despicable crime, and an accusation of rape should be taken very seriously -- but the rights of the accused should be rigorously protected. After the 1997 trial of sportscaster Marv Albert, defending the judge's decision to admit compromising information about Albert's sexual past but not about his accuser's, feminist attorney Gloria Allred decried "the notion that there's some sort of moral equivalency between the defendant and the victim." Yet as long as the defendant hasn't been convicted, he and the victim are indeed moral equals in the eyes of the law.

It's frightening to put oneself in the place of a sexual assault victim who finds the intimate details of her life paraded in public. But it's at least as terrifying to imagine that you, or your husband or brother or son, could be accused of sexual assault and denied access to relevant information that could make the difference between guilt and innocence.