New York Group Planning to Use Web Site To Notify Public on Felons' Parole StatusBy PAMELA MENDELS But prisoners' rights advocates are voicing misgivings about the project, saying it could prey on people's fears of crime and result in undue pressure on parole officials. ParoleWatch is being launched by Take Back New York Inc., an organization founded three years ago "to give the law-abiding public a greater voice in the criminal justice system and to advocate for the rights of victims," in the words of the group's founder and executive director, Joseph Diamond.
Diamond said that the new Web site's information about violent felons eligible for a parole hearing would be culled from official records and news accounts, and that the site might also publish victims' statements. Diamond said he was also considering including statements from those working on behalf of the prisoner. Users will be able to find the information by searches based on a variety of aspects of the case, among them the location of the crime, the date of the crime, the name of the inmate or the name of the victim. In the first year of the project, Diamond said, he plans to publish lists of only New York State prisoners eligible for parole. However, in coming years, he said, he hopes to offer listings of possible parolees nationwide, adding that he hopes to have between 500 and 1,000 cases described on the site by June 1998. Diamond is also hoping to obtain from the New York State Department of Correctional Services a listing of violent felons up for parole this year, as well as related information. James B. Flateau, a spokesman for the department, confirmed on Wednesday that Diamond's request was before the department's commissioner and said he expected a decision in a week or two. ParoleWatch will not be the first such site. For almost a year, the New Jersey State Parole Board has published on the Web a list of inmates eligible for parole. But Parole Watch might well be the first parole Web site published by a private organization. It has some prominent supporters. Raoul Felder, the New York divorce lawyer, serves as chairman of the project's advisory board, which also includes several well-known victims' rights advocates. Felder said he backed the project because too often victims receive no notification when offenders are up for parole. "There is a blank spot in the criminal justice system," Felder said. "We put these guys away. They get out and the victims usually have no way of knowing when they get out." ParoleWatch, he said, "gives them a fair shot." Peggy B. Burke, a senior associate and specialist in parole issues at the Center for Effective Public Policy in Silver Spring, Md., says that if the information contained on the site is accurate, the project could prove a valuable public service. Although many states require that victims be notified when an offender comes up for parole, she said, the system is imperfect. Sometimes lack of staffing is a problem. Other times victims cannot be tracked down years after a crime, or a parole board might not even know the name of the victim. A Web site could prove a useful way of helping to rectify these problems, she said. But others voiced concern about the project, saying it could lead to mass anti-parole campaigns that -- even if based on insufficient information -- could sway parole officials. Jennifer Gainsborough, the public policy administrator for the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, said that the Web site could not provide all the important pieces of information crucial to making intelligent parole decisions, including the behavior of the felon in prison or the circumstances of the community to which he would be returned. "I dislike these things that are really trying to encourage unproductive involvement by the public," she said. "It's not that the public don't have the right to know this information. But I don't see it as helpful to get people involved in the parole process when they know nothing about a particular case beyond what this group chooses to tell them." "Ninety five percent of people in prison are coming home sooner or later," he said. "There are some who would rather [it be] later than sooner. But even if that is the case, the prisoners are coming home at some point. The more challenging question is what environment are they coming back to? What should the criminal justice system and society do to see they have a smooth transition back to the community?" But Diamond argues that people have a right to know about the state's plans regarding the fate of criminals. "If the government were going to open a toxic dump site in a community, the public has a right to know that," Diamond said. "I think it's the same thing with parole. If a violent felon is about to be released to the community, the community has the right to known and at least make a statement." |
There is a blank spot in the criminal justice system. We put these guys away. They get out and the victims usually have no way of knowing when they get out. 