Criminal Defense News of the Week
by: Sduclos • November 20, 2012 • no comments
Contents |
Trying to Increase Revenues, State Courts Contract Probation Supervision to For-Profit Corporations
The New York Times reports in this sobering article that many localities, mostly in the southeast, have contracted with private companies for probation supervision. Unlike the private collection firms that collect traffic fines and fees in Oregon, these companies have the authority to jail those who are not paying their fines and fees--and to impose fees to cover the costs of incarceration.
A Snitch's Story
The NYT Magazine came out with a fascinating article last week about all the dirty under-your-fingernails confidential-informant dirty-cop scandal you could ever imagine. The story details the experience of one confidential informant, Alex White, who Atlanta police officers attempted to use to cover up a false warrant and shooting of a 92-year old woman.
Criminal Non-Disclosure of HIV - Does It Undermine Testing?
32 states have some sort of HIV-specific criminal transmission statute. 45 states have laws against HIV-positive people not disclosing their status during sex, acts of prostitution, needle exchanges, or when making organ, blood, or semen donations, or have prosecuted people for these behaviors under general felony laws. (Oregon uses general felony laws). A recent Mother Jones article describes the pushback against these laws as they discourage people from getting tested and further stigmatize HIV status.
==
Cell phone companies hold onto your location information for years and routinely provide it to police. But NOT to you. ProPublica recently gave it a shot- several staffers attempted to obtain their own cellphone location data from their carriers. Verizon, Spring, AT&T, and T-Mobile all responded that they could not provide the information to individuals, only to the police with a warrant. Reasonable expectation of privacy, anyone?
