Free Republic

The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision has announced they'll discharge eight thousand people on parole from supervision by March 31st. This comes after Governor Kathy Hochul signed the "Less is More Act" back in September of 2021. Eddie James Henley, who was sentenced to eight years for illegal firearm possession, says this will help move many forward. "The main reason like myself have been violated for little or nothing," Henley says. "Like curfew or perhaps marijuana in their system. They're violated, but this will alleviate these guys going back to jail for small things. Peaceprints of...

Albany, N.Y. - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced an executive order earlier this year to allow 24,000 parolees to vote in upcoming elections after 7pm. That initiative will be on display for the first time Thursday as parolees, including sex offenders, head to the polls. Assemblyman Ray Walter of Amherst is warning parents. "I think parents need to be aware of it, school administrators need to be aware of it, and election officials need to be aware of it, and remove kids from after-school and athletic activities". Back in May, Governor Cuomo issued the blanket pardon, giving 24,000 parolees...

It sounds like one of those only-in-San-Francisco tales: San Francisco's sheriff cannot carry a gun because he is on probation. "That doesn't handicap me from being a sheriff," Ross Mirkarimi told me.

The DOC says an average of three ankle monitors, like the one suspected killer Evan Ebel wore, are cut off every day in Colorado. According to a document released by the DOC Tuesday, the department’s monitors triggered 89,000 alerts in just the past six months. “I want you to think about the scope of information that comes in on a daily basis,” Alison Morgan, a spokeswoman from the DOC. The 89,000 alerts include every type of incident, from a simple power loss to tampering. ... The DOC says the first time Evan Ebel tampered with this ankle monitor was the...

Michael Harden's problems were just beginning when agents rolled up to his cluttered trailer to arrest him for letting the battery in his GPS ankle bracelet run low, making it difficult to track the movements of the paroled child molester. Then the agents found something even more disturbing: graphically sexual photographs on his cell phone. Seven months after he left prison, the 44-year-old Sacramento man was on his way back. He was one of more than 285 paroled sex offenders swept up throughout California this week by recently formed law enforcement teams, which were created partly as a response to...

LOS ANGELES — The Southern California homes of dozens of white supremacists were raided Tuesday as part of a probe into a string of potentially deadly booby trap attacks targeting police officers, authorities said. Federal and local officers converged on 35 homes and took 16 people into custody in Riverside County for a variety of crimes, including weapons, narcotics and parole violations, Hemet police Capt. Dave Brown said. None of the arrests were directly related to the booby trap attacks that have plagued the small Hemet Police Department since New Year's Eve. "But we hope some (arrests) will lead us...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – More than 250 state prison inmates freed without supervised parole under a new California law were convicted of crimes considered violent or threatening, according to prison records obtained as part of an inquiry by state lawmakers. A handful are sex offenders. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state corrections officials said the law, passed last year, was designed to improve public safety by concentrating parole supervision on the most dangerous felons. Allowing those convicted of lesser offenses to go unsupervised after their release would mean fewer people being sent back to prison for parole violations, reducing the inmate population...

Gov. Chris Gregoire today directed state Corrections Chief Eldon Vail not to accept any new parolees from Arkansas until matters arising from the Maurice Clemmons case have been addressed and resolved. Glenn Kuper, a spokesman for the governor, said Gregoire was taking the unusual step because she wants "to make sure that the system is appropriate to protect Washington residents."

SYLMAR - Concerned that their community has become a dumping ground for sex offenders, residents Thursday applauded a proposed law that would evenly distribute the state's most despised parolees across Assembly districts. Stating that 124 registered sex offenders live in Sylmar and just six reside in Beverly Hills, Assemblyman Richard Alarcón, D-San Fernando, said it is unfair that some communities - often in lower-income areas - shoulder more responsibility than others. "If it was equal up and down the state, I guess Sylmar would have to accept their fair share," he said. "But this is not equal. This is not...

Associated Press DENVER — The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday upheld a state law that prohibits convicted felons from voting while they are on parole, a ruling that will keep some 6,000 people from casting ballots this year. Colorado law denies felons the right to vote while they are serving their sentences, and the justices said in a unanimous opinion that parole must be considered part of a sentence. The ruling affirmed a lower court's interpretation of a 1995 state law. The American Civil Liberties Union's Colorado chapter challenged the law on behalf of two nonprofit groups and Michael Danielson...

HELENA, Mont. -- Hundreds of people barred from having guns because they are felons on parole or probation are still able to get hunting licenses in Montana with no questions asked, an Associated Press investigation found. Montana may not be alone. While nearly all states ban felons from possessing guns, only a handful -- including Rhode Island and Maine -- keep them from receiving hunting permits, and just a few others -- such as Illinois and Massachusetts -- require hunters to show both a hunting license and a firearms license. "Our license dealers have no way of checking," said Lt....

SANTA ANA – The traditional police practice of rounding up the usual suspects will take a 21st-century twist under a new program announced Friday that combines satellite monitoring of 40 Orange County parolees with computerized crime reports. State parole officers using GPS devices will track the daily movements of high-risk sex offenders paroled in Orange County and compare their travels with the locations of crimes committed in the sheriff's jurisdiction. If the parolee comes within 500 feet of a crime reported that same day, the individual's parole officer and the sheriff's investigations unit will be alerted. The two-year pilot program...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - (KRT) - Satellite tracking technology, a staple of weather forecasting and military operations for decades, is the latest tool California can use to ease its overburdened parole and probation system under legislation signed Tuesday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The bill, written by Democratic state Sen. Jackie Speier, clears the way for the state and its counties to continuously monitor the location of people on probation or parole by using global positioning system (GPS) devices. Although expensive - the cost runs close to $9 a day for each person tracked - widespread use of the GPS system could...

<p>If California's budget impasse goes on much longer, parolees won't get $200 for bus tickets and hotel rooms, litter will pile up along highways in Los Angeles, and the Tower Bridge in Sacramento won't be repainted in time for the Christmas shopping season, officials said Wednesday.</p>