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The Good Life
The objective of interdiction is rehabilitation. At
least that's what we have been taught and prefer to believe.
Yet the 'confinement' practices which have been in use
since before Roman dungeons are the antithesis of 'restorative
justice' and rather than rehabilitating offenders tend to leave those
convicted of a crime worse-off and in many ways more dangerous than
they were before doing time.
Yet still, 'confinement' practices have become so
'normal' and 'routine' that we tend to instinctively recoil from ideas
about changing this longstanding status.
Now, however, there is a growing tide of hard
evidence, such as this
PDF report about "The
Good Lives" model of therapeutic intervention and
rehabilitation, published by
Science Direct
on Aggressive and Violent Behaviors, which (politely) condemns the way
we have been doing things and sets a new standard for rehabilitative
practices which focus on 'capacity building' and offer a healthier
society for all.
 FIND US ON FACEBOOK!!!!
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CLICK HERE
for the May 2012
ATAT NEWS PDF
Once again we invite you to share the good news by printing our newsletter and other materials, such as this
flier
announcing our public meetings, and posting same to the
laundry-mat and grocery store bulletin boards you routinely
frequent. This nice
one-page summary
PDF about ATAT's advocacy work makes it easy to inform
friends. Find more things to
print and share on our
Projects page.
And of course we are stumping for you to tune-in to ATAT's weekly hour long talk-radio
show "It
Could Be YOU!" at 12 noon each Wednesday, broadcast live
on Little Rock's "Voice of the People," KABF 88.3 -- livestream at
KABF.org
NEXT REGULAR ATAT MONTHLY
MEETING
SUNDAY, APRIL 15, 2012, 2/4pm Arkansas Time After Time (ATAT) meets the 3rd Sunday of each month,
2pm to 4pm, in the West Room on the first floor of the Main branch of
the Little Rock Public Library, 100 Rock Street, across from the River
Market. All who have questions and seek solutions are welcome.
SAY HELLO TO OUR
BLOGGERS
ARCHIVES
August 2011 Homepage
RSOL 2011 National Conference Report
September 2011 Homepage
October 2011 Homepage|
Fall
Open House Pictorial
October 29, 2011:
ATAT attends Arkansas CURE Day of Pride & Prayer (pictorial)
November 2011 Homepage
Robert Kim Combs pictorial
biography.
Polls
& Petitions
December 2011 Homepage
January 2012 Homepage
February 2012 Homepage
March 2012
Homepage
April 2012
Homepage
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 UNPRECEDENTED:
Challenges in America
How sex offender laws are impacting our nation.
Listen to the March 14th [MP3]
radio archive of ATAT's weekly "It
Could Be You" talk-radio interview with Jon Corderio, author
of UNPRECEDENTED. Learn the facts, Share your knowledge. Stand
up. Stand tall. Speak out. Advocate for restorative justice. respect,
integrity, common sense and healthy communities for everyone.
CALL TO ADVOCACY:
The Arkansas Board of Parole votes monthly on proposal
affecting ALL parolees including those on the sex offender
registry. Proposed regulations which would restrict Internet access
were considered at the Thursday, March 29th board meeting, however the
vote was postponed. (click
here for details).
This issue will come up again and the Commissioners of
our Parole Board deserve to know all the facts on this issue. In this
interest, please consider writing to each
of the 4 parole board commissioners, the secretary, the vice chairman,
and the chairman. Their respective names and official address follow
the 'example' letter below, which was submitted by ATAT in March:
Dear Commissioner:
As I understand it, the Parole Board is considering a new policy that
would unilaterally eliminate Internet access for all paroled sex
offenders.
Respectfully, such a policy would weaken the ability and undermine the
capacity of Arkansas Parole Officers to appropriately regulate and
monitor the conduct of parolees as a matter of professional
discretion.
Having discretion to grant or withhold Internet access for any parolee
permits Parole Officers to apply personal knowledge of the parolee and
professional familiarity with risk factors to determine if and when
limited access and monitoring is called for and/or when such
restrictions impose unnecessary constraints which in turn result in
lost productivity, wasted staff hours and increased risk of
recidivism.
That is, to impose such restrictions regardless of the offender's
history or the nature of the offense places additional systemic
barriers to that individual's successful reentry to society and the
workforce, effectively prohibiting him or her from searching and
applying online for any form of employment. As the Internet has become
the preferred method of employment application and training throughout
the marketplace, without the ability to seek and secure employment in
this requisite manner we put parolees at risk of being sent back to
jail.
Respectfully, we must dedicate our resources to reducing systemic
barriers to reentry for the 11,000 families in Arkansas that are on
the state sex offender registry. As Declan McCullagh writes in
“Kicking Sex Offenders Off The Internet?” (CBS News, August 13, 2009),
“Like it or not, using Google, Yahoo, TV.com, and so on is part of
modern life, and it's reasonable to hope that even sex offenders could
be reintegrated into society rather than cordoned off from it and
therefore more likely to relapse.” see:
www.cbsnews.com/2100-215_162-5240568.html
Adding new systemic barriers when the remedy already exists in the
toolbox of every Parole Officer seems counter-intuitive. If an
individual has proven problematic in regards to Internet access, it is
and should remain the Parole Officers responsibility to impose limits.
For further information on this and related considerations, I
respectfully refer you to: “No Easy Answers: Sex Offender Laws in the
US,” published by the Human Rights Watch, September 2007, available
online at
www.hrw.org/en/reports/2007/09/11/no-easy-answers
“A Reasoned Approach,” published by the Association for
the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, April 2011, available online at
www.atsa.com/pdfs/ppReasonedApproach.pdf
Thank you for being smart on crime.
Sincerely,
Robert Combs
Executive Director
Arkansas Time After Time
(501) 563-2197
Arkansas Parole Board members are listed bellow:
· John Felts, Chairman
· James M. "Jimmy" Wallace, III, Vice-Chairman
· Richard Mays, Jr., Secretary
· Carolyn Robinson, Commissioner
· Abraham Carpenter, Jr., Commissioner
· Joseph "Joe" Peacock, Commissioner
· Richard Brown, Jr., Commissioner
Their addresses are all the same:
Arkansas Parole Board
Two Union National Plaza Building
105 West Capitol Avenue, Suite 500
Little Rock, AR 72201
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