Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.
December 15th, 2015
Photograph by Gretchen Ertl / The New York Times / Redux
“We have seen recent high-profile instances in which that article of faith has led to damaging errors, as in Rolling Stone’s reporting of a rape at the University of Virginia, or the prosecution of the Duke lacrosse case. The extent of the damage comes out of the fact that “always believe” unwittingly renders the stakes of each individual case impossibly high, by linking the veracity of any one claim to the veracity of all claims. When the core belief is that accusers never lie, if any one accuser has lied, it brings into question the stability of the entire thought system, rendering uncertain all allegations of sexual assault. But this is neither sensible nor necessary: that a few claims turn out to be false does not mean that all, most, or even many claims are wrongful. The imperative to act as though every accusation must be true—when we all know some number will not be—harms the over-all credibility of sexual assault claims.”
Read the full article by Jeannie Suk in The New Yorker.
Posted in Innocents, Sex Panic | No Comments »
Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.
December 11th, 2015
“Today, though, the town of Pahokee does more than tolerate the sex offender colony. It has come to embrace it. And nowhere is that turnaround more evident than at the United Methodist Church, where many offenders attend service.”
Read the full article by Anne Schindler in First Coast News.
“Travis Russ is founder and artistic director at Life Jacket Theatre, an “investigative theater” company based in New York City. He and creative partner Amelia Parenteau came to Pahokee for a week in October to conduct hours of interviews. Those will be transcribed into verbatim scripts, and eventually performed at their Off-Broadway theatre.”
Read the full article by Anne Schindler in First Coast News.
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Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.
December 9th, 2015
“And then there are the patent absurdities created by such laws—signs that legislators, in search of novel ways to torture so-called sex offenders, have abandoned consideration of efficacy or justice. In the case of underage sexting, for instance, a person is both offender and victim at the same time.”
Read the full article by Judith Levine in Boston Review.
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Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.
December 7th, 2015
I have been in touch with Felito Mendoza for over 15 years. But I haven’t been a good pen pal. I mean well, but my schedule just seems to get too busy.
Since being sent to prison, Felito had two faithful supporters. One was his mother. The other was a man named Nicholas Peters. Unfortunately, both are now dead. Felito is devastated by their loss.
I haven’t investigated Felito’s case. Mr. Peters did, and you can see his report by clicking on Felito’s name in the below address.
If you feel you can’t commit to being a regular pen pal, perhaps you could send him a Christmas card to brighten his lonely holiday season. Here is the address:
Felito Mendoza
BV3355
Box 246, C-A1-059
Graterford PA 19426-0246
-Bob Chatelle
Posted in Innocents, Prisons, Sex Panic | 4 Comments »
Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.
December 4th, 2015
Anyone who knows a prisoner knows how important to them to receive mail, especially at this time of year. Many prisoners receive no outside support at all.
I don’t care if you send a Christmas card, a holiday card, or whatever. Neither will they.
Here is a list of prisoners who’d be delighted to get a card:
https://bobchatelle.net/please-write-to-a-prisoner
Unfortunately, New Hampshire prisoners are not allowed to receive greeting cards of any sort, picture postcards, or any typewritten or printed material. Only handwritten letters on stock paper are permitted. Here is a li nk to their cruel and draconian policy:
https://www.nh.gov/nhdoc/documents/5-26amendment.pdf
One wonders why the ACLU is not protesting this blatant violation of the First Amendment.
-Bob Chatelle
Posted in Prisons | 6 Comments »
Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.
November 11th, 2015
“I’ve said it many times before — these sex offender cases are of the deepest importance, not because of any special concern we might have for convicted sex offenders but because they’re the despised minority du jour, subject to the harshest treatment that legislators and law enforcement officials can dream up, and unless the courts stand up and make it clear that there are lines the government cannot cross without running afoul of the Constitution, government action will become more and more abusive, and then all of our rights are at risk. A shame that the NC court didn’t view things that way.”
Read the op-ed by David Post in the Washington Post.
Posted in Sex Panic | 1 Comment »
Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.
November 1st, 2015
Tim Gruber for The New York Times
“But now Minnesota’s civil commitment program — which detains more people per capita than any other state — is facing an overhaul. Earlier this year, a federal judge found it unconstitutional, calling it ‘a punitive system that segregates and indefinitely detains a class of potentially dangerous individuals without the safeguards of the criminal justice system.'”
Read the New York Times article by Monica Davey.
Posted in Sex Panic | No Comments »
Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.
October 14th, 2015
Posted in Sex Panic | No Comments »
Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.
October 11th, 2015
“If you ask John Q. Public about the public safety risk posed by a juvenile who has been arrested for a sex offense, chances are he will estimate too high. The public is woefully uninformed when it comes to risk of sexual reoffense in general, and nowhere is the gap between reality and media-driven anxiety wider than in the case of juvenile sex offenders.”
Read the post by Karen Franklin in Forensic Psychology, Criminology and Psychology-Law.
Posted in Sex Panic | No Comments »
Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.
October 9th, 2015
“What is sexual victimization? The definitions change with history. It did not occur to me for years that Adam might have assaulted me. Sophie came to that conclusion in a matter of days. What most shaped my perceptions were feminist politics that stress sexual pleasure as much as sexual danger.”
Read the article by Judith Levine in Seven Days.
Posted in Sex Panic | No Comments »
