A Christmas prison post from my friend, Gunther Fiek:
Archive for December, 2017
An Empty Manger
Monday, December 25th, 2017After 28 years wrongly imprisoned for child molestation, man’s case dismissed
Friday, December 15th, 2017
mandi wright, detroit free press
“Young also said that he harbors no anger toward his accusers — who were 5 and 6 years old when they accused him of molesting them, only to later recant and confess that it was their mother’s boyfriend who harmed them, not Young. They were afraid of the boyfriend, records show, so they accused Young instead.”
Read the article by Tresa Baidas in the Detroit Free Press.
Sex Registries as Modern-Day Witch Pyres
Thursday, December 14th, 2017
“Perhaps the most irrefutable statement that can be made about modern day America is this: we have a penchant for putting people in cages. More than any other nation on the planet, we rely on incarceration as the fix for our social ills.”
Read the article by Guy Hamilton-Smith in Injustice Today.
Will Feminism’s Past Mistakes Haunt #MeToo?
Tuesday, December 12th, 2017
“The last couple of months also echo a troublesome history, however, whose legacy persists in the law and the Zeitgeist. “When does a watershed become a sex panic?” Masha Gessen asked recently in the New Yorker. The answer: what we are witnessing are not the omens of a looming sex panic; they are the symptoms of the one we are already in, and have been in for forty years.”
Read the rest of this thoughtful analysis bu NCRJ Director Judith Levine in the Boston Review.
Help us fight for Reason, Justice, and Real Child Protection
Saturday, December 9th, 2017Dear Friends,
Victor Rosario spent 32 years behind bars in Massachusetts for arson and homicide of eight people, including five children. Fran and Dan Keller were locked up in Texas for 21 years for “satanic ritual abuse” at their daycare center.
All are innocent. This year Fran and Dan were exonerated. Victor moved a step closer to true freedom.
NCRJ was there for them—the Kellers since 2002, Rosario since 2007—with money, expertise, and practical and moral support. When almost no one would help anyone accused of a crime against children, you were there too.
We helped free the first person falsely accused in the child abuse panics, Bernard Baran, and hopefully the last, the San Antonio Four.
NCRJ will keep working for justice for people wrongfully convicted of crimes against children.
We cannot do it without your support. Before the year is out, please help us with $25, $50 or more.
The child-protection panics live on in the expanding regime of unjust, draconian punishment and control over the lives of “sex offenders,” who range from flashers to consensual teenage lovers to violent rapists.NCRJ fights against ineffective, draconian criminal policies:
- sex offender registries that masquerade as child protection yet wreck individuals’ and families’ lives.
- indefinite involuntary civil commitment of offenders, after completion of prison sentences, to prevent crimes they might commit.
We circulate the evidence that these policies do not protect children.
Like you, NCRJ supports child protection that is rational, constitutional, and compassionate. Like you, we want justice, both for the innocent and the guilty.
This work is rarely popular. That’s why your support is critical, courageous, and powerful.
Please help with a gift of $50, $100, or more.
Consider becoming a sustaining donor—to ensure that NCRJ is here as long as we’re needed.
For justice, and with gratitude,
Michael R. Snedeker for the NCRJ Board of Directors
Children on Sex Offender Registries Are Suicide Risks
Thursday, December 7th, 2017“The most troubling findings, the authors say, pertained to suicidal intent and victimization experiences. The study found that registered children were four times as likely to report a recent suicide attempt in the last 30 days, compared to nonregistered children. Registered children were nearly twice as likely to have experienced a sexual assault and were five times as likely to have been approached by an adult for sex in the past year. Registered children also reported higher rates of other mental health problems, more peer relationship problems, more experiences with peer violence and a lower sense of safety.”
Read the news release from Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse at Johns Hopkis University.
Please Send a Holiday Card to a Prisoner
Monday, December 4th, 2017Anyone who knows a prisoner knows how important it is 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.
-Bob Chatelle
