Mugshot Industry is Shame-based Profiteering: It Must End
People who experience the "Justice" system will tell you there are two justice systems: those who have money and connections to the right people, and those who don't. I wouldn't really call it a justice system, more of a money making cartel.
Ghislaine Maxwell.
That woman ruined people's lives forever with rampant psychological and sexual abuse- 20 years.
Ross Ulbricht, created a website, is sentenced to life.
George Floyd, does not have his life.
It is a broken system that relies on brokenness to survive.
Photo by Clelia Jane Sheppard
Extortion and Bullying from Criminal Justice System, Including the Mugshot Industry:
The following is an excerpt from the work of Eumi K. Lee in Volume 70, Issue 3 of the Rutgers University Law Review: Monetizing Shame: Mugshots, Privacy, and the Right to Access
As the Sixth Circuit recently observed, “[m]ugshots now present an acute problem in the digital age.”7 “[N]early one out of every three American adults”—77.7 million people—has been arrested and, thus, could be impacted.8 Once these images are online, whether posted initially by mugshot companies or law enforcement, they live on in perpetuity. They serve as the digital scarlet letter of our times, permanently affecting the reputation of those who have paid their debt to society and even may have expunged their criminal record, those who were found innocent, and those who were never prosecuted.
Many have likened the practices of these mugshot companies to extortion or bribery, i.e., the forced payment of money by threat of humiliation or shame. Privacy advocates have decried these websites, arguing that the publication of mugshots is another erosion into privacy in this digital era. Other critics argue that these images stigmatize individuals with the label of “criminal,” making successful (re)integration into the community challenging. On the other hand, free speech advocates, media outlets, and victims’ rights organizations urge for open access to these records, arguing that the public has the right to know about arrests. They argue that the images are newsworthy. Some assert that the public distribution of mugshots serves an important public safety role by encouraging assistance in criminal investigations and deterring future criminality. Others contend that open access is necessary for a just, democratic society.
Little has been written about mugshots and privacy within the legal academy.10 And what has been written has focused largely on the previous federal circuit court split concerning the United States Marshals Service’s protective policy to withhold mugshots under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”).11 However, the vast majority of mugshots are taken and disclosed by state and local, not federal, law enforcement agencies. Although state laws vary greatly, the majority of states consider mugshots open public records and provide easy access to mugshot websites and the media. In addition, recent state legislative efforts targeted at the “mugshot racket” are ineffective because they do not address the root cause of the problem—public access to mugshots in the Internet era.12 Despite any efforts to remove these images from onesite or another, the reality is that once the mugshot is published online, there is no means of erasing it from cyberspace.
The research by "Monetizing Shame: Mugshots, Privacy, and the Right to Access" explores the commodification and monetization of these images by the mugshot industry and media outlets, and the state and federal laws that govern their availability. The Article asserts that society must recognize the greater privacy interests at stake in the digital era and limit public access to mugshots. Because the majority of states consider mugshots presumptively open records under their public records laws, mugshot companies and the press have the constitutional right to publish them. The Article suggests that the presumption should be switched and that mugshots should be deemed presumptively closed records that are generally not disclosed to the public, as is the current federal standard.
Photo by Clelia Jane Sheppard
We allow for a society that extorts people for not being rich/and or well connected enough to effectively fight for their freedom when they make a mistake. Oftentimes, these are for non-violent crimes and are retroactively dismissed. Here are some links to petitions about these injustices:
-https://www.change.org/p/governor-ralph-norman-prison-reform-be57c793-0437-4775-99d5-cf00554290ff
-https://www.change.org/p/famm-prison-reform-justice-for-khynesha
-https://www.change.org/p/prison-reform-for-the-mentally-ill
Let's not forget GEO Group, a large corporation that creates private prisons and detention centers, and the millions of people they separate from society with a guaranteed fill quota (they tried to buy a stadium name at FAU ten years ago only to be rejected, thanks in part to a petition drafted on change.org):
https://www.change.org/p/fau-drop-the-geo-group
...For people we will never hear about imprisoned by systemic tyranny all over the world...
The dynamic of imbalanced power that divides people is reflected in the mugshot industry. Sometimes, in order to create change for the proverbial "Belly of the Beast", you have to start with something seemingly irrelevant and minuscule in the grand scheme of things.
For this particular petition, it is the shame-based profiteering extortion schemes of the mugshot industry. There are many other facets to the criminal justice system that are unfair, like bail bonds that are unaffordable, forcing people to pay $200.00 per month for ankle monitors with listening devices, probation/parole terms that make it difficult for people to integrate back into society, and the treatment of people who are victims of assault, domestic violence and mental health issues including addiction. Addiction, a very serious learning and brain disorder, is treated as a moral failing and subsequently criminalized.
This is nationally condoned bullying. Some people say others deserve to have their worst moments publicly shared, but I believe punishing people through humiliation and shame is a vestige of an uncivilized and ill-informed culture.
Punishment does not produce long term solutions, but our draconian criminal justice system in the United States has, for too long, punished people who are marginalized by society, non-violent, have mental or physical health problems and do not have access to the resources required to fight their situation.
We are brainwashed to accept these terms and conditions, because we are beholden to a corporation that owns us from the day we are born.
I am writing this petition today about one facet of this industry: to end online distribution of criminal records. Mugshots and criminal records are for law enforcement purposes only; the public dissemination of this information should not be allowed.
Mugshots are made to be "cool" in Hollywood, but in reality they impact your job search, ability to find housing, and violate inner sanctity-leaving people stuck in situations they may not want to be in; therefore limiting social mobility due to economic entrapment . Many people ensnared in the justice system end up on the brink of homelessness or living on the streets. See (https://www.vera.org/downloads/publications/no-access-to-justice.pdf)
Maybe one day we will live in a society where we put health first, including those of people who are sick and suffering.
Photo by Clelia Jane Sheppard
Sign if you believe shame-based profiteering and extortion by third party distributors of mugshots/criminal records should be investigated by the Attorney General of the United States and the DOJ. The fact that many of these companies also own brand management sites (aka content removal sites) that are advertised on the mugshot site just shows the endless cycle they create for profit.
"....Most of the state mugshot laws include some sort of criminal component, typically making it a misdemeanor offense for not complying. But it's not clear that police have ever filed charges against a mugshot website. The onus falls almost entirely on the person whose photo is posted, and lawsuits are no small undertaking, particularly for those who cannot afford an attorney..."
Mugshot sites such as arrests.org, bustednewspaper, Mugshots, BustedMugshots, MugshotsOnline or JustMugshots, among hundreds out there, use methods that resemble extortion in order to profit from what should be private records.
"They haven't worked," says Eumi Lee, a law professor at University of California-Hastings who has spent three years studying the effectiveness of mugshot laws for an upcoming legal review article to be published by Rutgers. "But they've had a bunch of unintended consequences."
In Emui's work, she provides an overview of the use of mugshots in the United States and examines the commodification of mugshots in the digital era. In Part II, she argues that the only means of addressing this problem is by limiting the right of access. Although the mugshot industry enjoys a broad First Amendment right to publish mugshots, there is no constitutional right to access them. Under Exemption 7 (C) of the FOIA, the disclosure of mugshots is considered an unwarranted invasion of privacy and is not permitted absent a specific law enforcement need (e.g., circulating the mugshot of a dangerous fugitive). The current default presumption that mugshots are open records in the majority of states should be changed such that mugshots are deemed presumptively closed. This would follow the trend in the federal courts as exemplified by the recent decision in Detroit Free Press, Inc. v. United States Department of Justice in which the Sixth Circuit overturned its prior precedent and recognized the greater privacy interest in mugshots at stake in the digital age. The preferred proposal would be the adoption of a federal law akin to the Driver's Privacy Protection Act of 1994, which prevents states from disclosing driver's license pictures (and other information) to the public except in limited circumstances. The Supreme Court should revisit its previous decision that mugshots do not implicate a constitutional right to privacy.
Although created for the purposes of criminal identification and investigation, mugshots have become a commodity in this digital era, commercialized by a wide variety of private entities from newspaper to websites focusing on the posting of criminal records for profit.
The mugshot industry thrives on mass incarceration. The two go hand in hand in disenfranchising the disenfranchised.
Why do we turn a blind eye to mass incarceration? The U.S. imprisons two million people every day, many of whom suffer mental health issues and committed non-violent crimes. Prisons do not disappear problems, they disappear humans. Mass incarceration tears apart the social fabric of communities and costs taxpayers millions. Public and private prisons, such as GEO Group and Civic Corps Corrections, promise to rehabilitate prisoners however the rate of recidivism is astronomical (50% percent return in the first year of being released).
Those in prison develop life-long PTSD along with other health issues from being dehumanized in a draconian penal system that originated in the United Kingdom. Locking offenders in cages with lights on twenty four seven is a vestige of old times, we have an opportunity today to reimagine how to correct societally unacceptable behavior. The central psychological technique of utilizing extreme punishment to reinforce the elimination of negative behavior is a severely simplistic approach to behavioral psychology.
Many people who end up in the criminal justice system, either in prison, commutations, parole or on probation have some history of childhood trauma. The results of these life events can be detrimental and should be seen as a health crises. Privacy should be the default for handling the consequences of high adverse childhood event (ACE) scores.
Just recently, in a Virginia Facility, a man who sustained injuries as a child from a Traumatic Brain Injury was tortured, suffered from hypothermia and eventually found unresponsive in his cell after being beaten to death. He was intellectually disabled. His actions that lead him to imprisonment were indeed a crime, but the lens through which those in charge of protecting the institution of rehabilitation that should be our "justice system", handled the consequences with their own bias-through one of extreme punishment with no consideration for health, history or status of mental condition that eventually lead to his death.
In Colorado, a young man with serious mental health issues is berated on national media in order to send a warning after his arrest. We learn through news agencies that undercover FBI agents spent significant time and money tricking him into joining ISIS. Based on multiple national reports regarding this case, we see how the media does not honor privacy with issues that should be protected with the same strictness as HIPAA, such as mental health. The real risk this troubled young man posed to national security was being vulnerable to kidnapping by a terrorist group. In a fair and just world, the status of minors and their psychiatric conditions would not be publicly divulged. Instead, the situation would be dealt with privately amongst law enforcement, health care professionals, advocates, and family members.
"...According to one person who reported him to law enforcement, Meyer attended an eight-month-long camp between 2021 and 2022 that focused on mental health and behavior treatment. "While there, he became more radical in his beliefs," the complaint reads.
Meyer appears to have a documented history of mental health issues that raise questions about how much he knew about his plans and his willingness and ability to carry them out. According to the FBI, Meyer had been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, anxiety, depression and other related mental health issues...."
We see double standards all the time: a software developer from Arkansas gets 33 months for creating a program that was later abused by users (https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/nanocore-rat-developer-gets-33-month-prison-sentence-a-10682) while the creator of Facebook, now Meta, allows for millions of unwitting people on social media to be spied on in order to influence elections [Cambridge Analytica] or Yelp, who extorts small businesses with no legal repercussion. This is treason to the American people, and citizens of the world.
The people behind the scenes, the correctional officers, the guards, agents, the probation officers, the people who sell mugshots and criminal information or post listings on PacerMonitor for profit-they are the ones who must be trained with trauma informed care that takes into consideration the circumstances that lead to the commitment of a crime, like medical history. In the mid 1970s, American Sociologist Robert Martinson released a study "What Works" which described his views on the shortcomings of the prison system. His "Nothing Works" doctrine became the central tenet that guides penal systems today-it is a mentality centered around the idea that rehabilitation is simply a waste of time and money. In the 1989 Supreme Court Case Mistretti v. United States, the Court upheld sentencing guidelines which removed rehabilitation from serious consideration when sentencing offenders. No recognition was given to factors such as amenability to treatment, personal history, efforts to rehabilitate oneself or alternatives to prison.
That mindset is evident today, despite significant measures in some areas to counter its prevalence.
As society learned from the Stanford/Zimbardo Prison Experiment, in this case guards, people placed in positions of power and authority over overs can begin to behave in ways they would not usually act in their everyday lives or other situations. People who are imprisoned, who have no control, become submissive and depressed. Societal roles and expectations, especially if left unchecked and do not evolve with the times and consciousness of humanity, lead to hostile, dehumanizing, aggressive, and abusive behavior on those with the proverbial upper hand. During the Zimbardo/Stanford experiment, even the researchers began to lose sight of the reality of the situation as they observed physically and psychologically healthy people devolve into monsters once placed in a prison-like setting. They did not realize they were being observed. Despite this experiment being touted as incredibly flawed and unethical today , the criticisms over the findings of the study do not undermine the conclusions.
There needs to be a paradigm shift to ensure that reform and improvement are the end result of people who are forced to go through the system in any capacity.
The least we could do is petition that mugshots not be turned into a racketeering scheme to further perpetuate the desensitization of societal attitudes towards those who are in jail or have served time. People are taught to discard those involved in the criminal justice system. There is a fine line that must be studied between protecting privacy and allowing transparency for the sake of public safety.
Thank you for reading this far, please be sure to read the "sources" at the bottom of this petition to further educate yourself on the history of mugshot policy in the media.
Photo by Clelia Jane Sheppard
Finally, Please read this excerpt from Katal, who is not affiliated with this petition, to take a survey about mass incarceration. Together we can fight injustice and strive for a more equitable and trauma-informed society that does not penalize health issues, such as mental health, or set people up for failure due to poverty.
Katal is fighting back against mass incarceration and mass criminalization in Connecticut, and other states. Please fill out our justice impact survey to get connected with us and our campaign and we'll follow up with you. All information you share in this survey will not be shared publicly.
"...Yeah, life is not fair, and the most manipulative f**kheads always seem to win. Keyword "seem". Life is extremely fair, everyone dies, empty handed. People on the other hand can be evil, stay away from them. A lot of people say if God existed then this wouldn't have happened. But God gave people free will. That will to destroy, compete, and hurt is innate. God exists within the consciousness of people willing to perpetuate the frequency of love..."
Sources:
"§ 8.01-40.3. Unauthorized dissemination, etc., of criminal history record information; civil action.
A. Any person who disseminates, publishes, or maintains or causes to be disseminated, published, or maintained the criminal history record information as defined in § 9.1-101 of an individual pertaining to that individual's charge or arrest for a criminal offense and solicits, requests, or accepts money or other thing of value for removing such criminal history record information shall be liable to the individual who is the subject of the information for actual damages or $500, whichever is greater, in addition to reasonable attorney fees and costs."
"This practice is similar to activity of the former revenge porn website operator we wrote about in April, who was sentenced to 18 years in jail for identity theft and extortion. Beyond operating a revenge porn website, Kevin Bollaert also ran a revenge porn removal website, which was disguised as a neutral service provider. According to The San Diego Union-Tribune, Bollaert collected $30,000 in total payments from his one website for removing content from his other website.
Similarly, many mugshot operators (and, in some cases, actual employees) scour the internet for mugshots daily, publish them on their own websites, and then charge potentially hefty fees for the removal of the photos. This, of course, does not preclude the same images popping up elsewhere, in sort of a Whack-A-Mole situation.
Surely, people must face the consequences of certain poor decisions made in their pasts and there is also a clear public interest in certain information – for example, whether a potential employee, teacher, coach, or significant other has a checkered past. But mugshots do not always tell the full story.
For instance, a person can be the victim of a wrongful arrest and have a booking photo taken which might ultimately surface online. In fact, The New York Times piece featured a Florida doctor who had recently completed her residency and was on the verge of a job search while dealing with this very situation.
“Mug shots are merely artifacts of an arrest, not proof of a conviction, and many people whose images are now on display were never found guilty, or the charges against them were dropped,” The New York Times article reads.
In recent years, several states have introduced and signed into law bills that regulate the practices of these mugshot websites. For instance, in August 2014, California’s governor signed a bill prohibiting websites from posting booking photos and charging for removal."
-Internet Defamation Attorneys Vorys Sater Seymour and Pease LLP
"If you call Mugshots.com at 1-800-810-3965, you'll end up talking to a customer service representative who is willing to take your photo down, "as long as the arrest isn't for a harsh or heinous crime."
The cost to take your mug shot down: between $178 and $399.
"We accept all major credit cards: Discover, American, Visa or MasterCard," the rep says.
That isn't supposed to be the case. Following a New York Times exposé earlier this month, MasterCard (MA), Visa (V) and Discover (DFS) promised to cut ties with such sites as Mugshots.com, BustedMugshots.com and JustMugshots.com.
The sites are doing what some have described as extortion: Mug shot websites can ruin people's online reputations by publishing arrest photos -- even if criminal charges were dropped -- and charging stiff fees to take them down."
"Shamed by Mugshot Sites, Arrestees Try Novel Lawsuit
Websites that host booking photos and charge hundreds of dollars to remove the mugshots are proliferating across the country, raking in fortunes from those wanting to keep their arrest and criminal records off search engines. There's dozens of them with names like florida.arrests.org, okiemugs.com and justmugshots.com. There's no law against them, as they have been viewed as protected by the First Amendment because mug shots are public records. Defamation suits have gone nowhere. But now, an Ohio lawyer is taking a novel legal approach to get back at these sites by asserting that state's right-of-publicity law and suing a handful of the sites for exploiting images for commercial gain."
"Attorney General Becerra Announces Criminal Charges Against Four Individuals Behind Cyber Exploitation Website."
-State of California Department of Justice
"From 1996 until late 2012, the United States Marshals Service (USMS) released arrestees’ mug shots in response to requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)1 that came from the jurisdiction of the Sixth Circuit.2 This policy accommodated the Sixth Circuit’s decision in Detroit Free Press, Inc. v. Department of Justice, which clearly required the USMS to disclose arrestees’ mug shots in response to FOIA requests.3 However, on December 12, 2012, the USMS General Counsel issued a memorandum stating that, effective immediately, the USMS would no longer release federal arrestees’ mug shots in response to FOIA requests unless doing so would serve a legitimate law enforcement purpose, such as apprehending a fugitive or alerting victims.4 The USMS justified its decision by relying on two more recent federal appellate court opinions that exempted mug shots from disclosure under FOIA."
-Northwestern University Law Review
Finally, I would like to add to this petition some striking similarities to the criminal justice system treatment of people to the dynamics of abusive relationships:
Dynamics of Abusive Relationships
The What: Behavior Definitions of Domestic Violence ■A pattern of behaviors including a variety of tactics. ■Some physically injurious and some not,
■Some criminal and some not.
■Assaultive and coercive behaviors, including physical, sexual, and psychological attacks as well as economic coercion.
To whom is the abuse directed?
■The abuse may be directed at persons other than the victim (e.g., children) or even animals and pets, for the purpose of controlling the victim.
Domestic Violence: A Pattern of Behaviors
■Physical Assaults: Physical abuse may include spitting, scratching, biting, grabbing, shaking, shoving, pushing, restraining, throwing, twisting, slapping (with open or closed hand), punching, strangling (choking), burning, and/or use of weapons (e.g. household objects, knives, guns) against the victim.
■Understanding seriousness requires determining context (I.e. “pushing”. . .down a flight of stairs,in front of a car, while pregnant, etc.)
Rape and Sexual Assault
■Complicated in DV Cases by:
■Threats gain power based on history of violence
■I.e. engaging in wide range of unwanted sexual behavior that victims are reluctant to disclose because of nature of act
Failure of many victims to realize they have the right to say no to an intimate partner; The reluctance of many victims to describe the assault to police, prosecutor, judge;
Slow recognition of legal system to understanding marital rape.
■Devastating psychological and physical consequences.
Marital Rape
■1970: no laws recognized marital rape as a crime;
■12% of married women are raped by their husbands;
■34-59% of battered women report male partner raped them;
■Injuries more severe than stranger rape but victims less likely to seek medical help; ■MARITAL RAPE IS ONE OF THE STRONGEST PREDICTORS OF WHETHER ONE SPOUSE WILL KILL THE OTHER
Psychological Assaults
■Threats of violence and harm
■Attacks against property or pets and other acts of intimidation ■Emotional abuse
■Isolation
■Minimization, denial and blame ■Use of children
Compare Cycle of Violence ■Three Phases ■Tension-building
■Acute battering incident ■Honeymoon (nonviolent) phase ■Psychological victimization ■Psychological interdependence
Cycle of Violence
Tension Building
■Abuser starts to get angry
■Abuse may begin
■There is a breakdown of communication ■Victim feels they need to keep the abuser calm ■Tension becomes too much
■Victim feels like they are 'walking on egg shells'
The incident
■Acute Battering Incident: This is an uncontrollable discharge of built-up tension; the process has stopped responding to any control.
■The "trigger" for moving into this phase is rarely the woman's behavior; rather it is usually an external stressor (problems at work, a flat tire, etc.) or the internal state of the abuser.
■The type of battering that occurs is usually much more serious and intense than in phase one and the woman may be severely injured.
■Because the acute battering incident may be triggered by anything, there is a complete lack of predictability.
Abuse within the control of batterer, not victim
■There is no escape once the battering has begun; only the batterer can end the incident. After the severe battering has occurred, the couple moves into Phase Three or the "honeymoon" phase.
Cycle of Violence (Cont.)
Making-Up
■Abuser may apologize for abuse
■Abuser may promise it will never happen again
■Abuser may blame the victim for causing the abuse
■Abuser may deny abuse took place or say it was not as bad as the victim claims
Cycle of Violence
Calm
■Abuser acts like the abuse never happened ■Physical abuse may not be taking place ■Promises made during 'making-up' may be met ■Victim may hope that the abuse is over ■Abuser may give gifts to victim
Cycle of Violence (Cont)
■The cycle can happen hundreds of times in an abusive relationship. Each stage lasts a different amount of time in a relationship. The total cycle can take anywhere from a few hours to a year or more to complete.
■It is important to remember that not all domestic violence relationships fit the cycle. Often, as time goes on, the 'making-up' and 'calm' stages disappear.
■The cycle is then repeated.
Power and Control Wheel
Another type of “Cycle of Violence”
■The “cycle of violence” hypothesis suggests that a childhood history of physical abuse predisposes the survivor to violence in later years.
Physical vs. Verbal Abuse
■Both parties “abusive”
■Verbal abuse vs. fist in the face
■Abusive behavior vs. acts of resistance
■Abused parties are not passive recipients of violence, but often engage in strategic survival during which they sometimes resist the demand of abusers.
Control, Control, Control
■Over the battered victims movements, emotions, thoughts and potentially every aspect of her life.
■Must understand the pattern of behavior over time to understand the victim’s experiences.
Here is a rough template of an email that someone undergoing extortion from mugshot industries can send to their record removal email/portal:
I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing to address a serious concern regarding the presence of my photograph on your website, [Website Name]. I firmly believe that the continued display of my mugshot on your platform constitutes an act of extortion and an infringement on my rights.
In accordance with well-established legal principles, individuals have the right to privacy and protection from harm. Over the years, courts have consistently ruled against the unauthorized use of personal information and images for financial gain. This includes instances where mugshot websites have been deemed to engage in exploitative practices, undermining an individual's ability to move forward after facing legal challenges.
It is crucial to recognize the legal precedent set by cases such as [Detroit Free Press, Inc. v. U.S. Dep’t of Justice, -- F.3d -- (6th Cir. 2016).In a 9-7 en banc decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed the lower courts’ ruling, holding individuals have a privacy interest in their booking photos for the purposes of Exemption 7(C) of the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. § 552. In so doing, the Court overruled Circuit precedent established two decades ago in Detroit Free Press, Inc. v. Dep’t of Justice, 73 F.3d 93 (6th Cir. 1996) (“Free Press I”).
which firmly established the rights of individuals to control their likeness and personal information. In light of this, I kindly request that you promptly remove my photograph from your website and cease any further attempts to exploit my situation for monetary gain.
I trust that you will give this matter the attention it deserves and take immediate steps to rectify the situation. Failure to comply with this request may result in legal action being pursued to protect my rights and seek appropriate remedies. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
[Insert Name]
Backstory:
I'm creating this petition because as a survivor of domestic violence diagnosed with ADHD/Aspergers as well as amblyopia, I feel a keen sense of dismay when the causative factors of criminal behavior are ignored and then further exacerbated by extortion, bullying, degradation and shame. This promotes a mindset of hopelessness and a reduced motivation to change, rendering offenders vulnerable to a cycle of recidivism, poverty, homelessness and disease. Fear and intimidation, precursory antecedents of profitable endeavors within psychologically forced driven industries, are not long term solutions for deterring unwanted behavior. From mugshots to bail bonds, every rung in the ladder of the criminal justice system has ripple effects. One non-violent crime can alter the trajectory of life in perpetual scarlet letter cyberspace ambiguity.
This portion focuses on my own experience- I thought it would help personalize a depersonalized and dehumanizing industry, a glimpse into a parallel dimension of hell some call reality.
I was criminalized for possessing a weapon that I never used that I purchased legally from an online retailer (guns and ammo) for self defense purposes, after two men beat me unconscious in Belle Haven, Virginia one night until I almost died. One of them even showed up to my house a few months later, completely intoxicated and barged into my domicile. I guess that's just not good enough of a reason to purchase a weapon for self defense. Oh, and wait, that other time when some guy named Adam relentlessly stalked and called me, including heavy breathing on the phone for months at a time despite me changing my number and email numerous times. Or that other time someone followed me from the Oceanfront in Virginia Beach to a Vitamin Shoppe, taking pictures of me in my car and saying/doing lewd things both while I was in shop and when I went from my car into the building. I filed police reports for both incidents, which resulted in nothing and were ignored.
My life has been irrevocably changed because of this encounter with the law and not for good. My character was slandered in court, I was humiliated in front of an entire court room by prosecutors who used photos from Facebook of a beach bonfire party I had twelve years ago to say I was an arsonist. My recent lack of employment, after sustaining a head injury from aforementioned domestic violence incident, in which I was left to die and vomiting clear cerebral spinal fluid, was twisted by the lawyer paid to defend me, "...Your honor, she has no skills..." and therefore used as information to categorize me as a "mental defective". Since then, I have endured four years of bullying by my local federal probation building, here is my recent testimony:
My probation experience worsened my mental health a thousand percent. Wearing an ankle monitor that can listen to you increases a feeling of anxiety. Having strange men with guns able to walk into your life at any second was terrifying. Having to share intimate details, like relationships and bank account information felt violating and dehumanizing. Peeing in front of a stranger, even if it was a woman, was triggering especially from receiving sexual harassment/abuse from as a child. Urinating into a cup with a stranger next to you who does not treat you like a human being and barely acknowledges a hello further adds to this feeling of "othering"-they treat you like an animal at the zoo. It was like re-living my worst trauma that lead me to commit the crime (possession of a weapon) in the first place. The months leading to my sentencing were absolute hell where I had to send selfies every two hours to the interim probation officer (who would make weird comments the days that I wore make up) and was not allowed to go anywhere besides my one bedroom studio apartment after spending time in jail, filling in monthly supervision reports is an invasion of privacy(...the question, is this you? every month with the ugliest picture of you at your worst time in life after recovering from a head injury related to domestic violence is not something anyone wants to be reminded of) Going to jail and spending time in a mental health hospital for having a weapon was an extreme measure that still gives me nightmares four years later. As a creative soul and photographer, being stuck in the one county I spent most of my life trying to get away from was a crush to the spirit. I have never been more depressed or mentally unwell as I was during this process. I am trying to recover from it with every ounce of strength available to my being as I finish the final year of my probation. There isn't a day that goes by where I feel like the last few years of my youth were robbed from me. I was forced to go to cannabis treatment after failing a random drug test one time in four years, even though cannabis helped me feel better, but was a violation to my probation. I went to "treatment" in Florida and then to a halfway house. I was approved by probation to stay in South Florida and had eventually signed a lease to an apartment with a roommate and obtained employment. A few months into staying there I received a random note from the probation officer in Florida that my case was rejected because I had switched jobs and was deemed unstable and had one week to move back to Virginia, with no place to go and thousands of dollars in debt from cancelling on living situation terms. They completely upheaved my life and cost me more than just money, they almost cost my sanity. Recently, I had an epiphany after a particularly heinous experience with my probation officer during a random breathalyzer test conducted in their main facility-he was sarcastic, derisive, and conducted the test in a psychologically abusive manner that bordered sexual harassment. There was no one to report this behavior to and I have to remain subservient to his perverted sense of justice in a power dynamic I was forced to cosign in order to protect my freedom. I realized...I am in an abusive relationship with the government. I can honestly say the experience of probation did nothing to help rehabilitate my life and made it worse and exacerbated mental health issues related to anxiety, depression and PTSD. Paying $200 a month to wear an ankle monitor for a year and a half was draining financially. Being on probation crushed my photography business and I was not able to go anywhere without having to report and ask for permission, and frequently denied doing that too. I was told to get a job that pays living wages, which no one in Virginia does for the average convicted felon (better chance of a normal life in South Florida). I am told to simmer down and be grateful because I only spent a little time in jail and that house arrest, aka being isolated and restricted for over a year, isn't all that bad compared to other people. I say that abuse is abuse, whether it's a little or a lot, my life was abused, discarded and treated as nothing more than a number and some unwanted paperwork.
I am a graduate from The College of William and Mary, have run a successful photography business, served on the Wyoming Conservation Corps, have worked in addiction treatment centers and am a volunteer for children with disabilities at a local equestrian center. I was a former ballet dancer, have won national contests for art and photography since elementary school and used to play field hockey, soccer, and tennis. During my probation, I worked with local non-profits regarding a documentary about water quality and access in order to try and serve my community.
I've also published songs, written for other people as a spur of the moment editor and used to be an actress in community theatre. I guess, those don't count as skills to judges and lawyers who only see people in terms of tax bracket.
I stand here a convicted felon battling with bullying from mugshot sites like arrest.org, taken after my hospital stay when I was just awakening from a severe state of injury, several face wounds, gashes on my body, bruises, bruised ribs, signs of strangulation, eye bruising and cuts and a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury).
I wonder, were the first 22 years of my life a complete waste? All those nights studying for the SATs, going out of my way to be involved in extracurriculars so I could attend my dream school to be a therapist, all those days feeling left out because I was so focused on this mission of obtaining a great education, taunted for reading Lord of the Rings in homeroom instead of talking about last weekend's party. My dream was to help people; my proactive choice to purchase a weapon for self defense took those dreams away.
I guess in this country, one bad decision, like purchasing a weapon, can render your entire life path to a void state where rights don't exist and extortion, both blatant and covert, thrive unchecked. It is to remind us we are not sovereign beings with free will, after all....the law is the law. For some.
Few people care about the plight of those who enter the system: rich, poor, black, white, fat, skinny, ugly, pretty, any shade of categorization -because we are taught that if you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes. We are taught to fear, to judge, and look the other way. This fear perpetuates violence on both sides of the fence. In the end, we are left in solitary confinement both in and out of the system that tears apart families and destroys relationships.
It is time we reexamine the logical fallacies that become cultural norms magnified by our treatment of those involved in the justice system. Research, science and literature is available to us by studies conducted by psychologists, doctors, the lived experience of those impacted by the system, activists and, in some cases, lawyers. A majority of them conclude, in some, way, shape or form that punishment is not the way to change society for the best.
Caustic ignorance of these facts presented by experiential and empirical research is highlighted by modern day journalism and media on a local and global scale. Your average town newspaper has a special section just for arrests and violations, right next to the latest scene of distress like a car accident- more clicks from shame and shock value-based profiteering. Many of these newspapers think they are a service to others and eschew liberally based social values. Their participation in shame and shock value based publication of what should be private information suggests otherwise.
Sharing this information is solely a means to drive traffic to their sites-clickbait at the expense of privacy.
Anyway...
Here is my fugly mugshot , shared on arrests.org without my permission. When I emailed their site to take it down, info@arrests.org, guess what happened? Nothing. Instead, multiple fake profiles with my name, and other fake charges not related to my "possession of a weapon" charge, including driving while intoxicated, populated within hours.
Not only is this information incorrect, it is defamatory and impedes my ability to move on from this experience.
The "justice" system is biased, mugshots are a barrier to moving on, they provide an avenue for third party extortion, and are an invasion of privacy. The proliferation of these sites foster unfettered frenzies of caustic, immature, and evil adults preying upon the weak, vulnerable, mentally unwell, physically damaged, abused, hurt, and sick members of society. This is not right and it must end.
We must revisit the legislation of Detroit Free Press, Inc. v. U.S. Dep’t of Justice, -- F.3d -- (6th Cir. 2016) as well as the Driver's Privacy Protection Act of 1994, the FOIA exemption by the US Marshal Service that allows for mugshot distribution and demand an investigation of those who perpetuate their distribution. The "Nothing Works" Doctrine Mentality espoused by sociologist Robert Martinson in the 1970s is still evident in sentencing guidelines solidified by the 1989 Supreme Court Case Mistretti v. United States. If the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), a federal law that required the creation of national standards to protect sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without the patient’s consent or knowledge proposed by Bill Clinton can exist between doctors and patients, the criminal justice system can offer an equivalent Criminal History Information Protection and Policy Act between law enforcement and offenders. Ideally, this would prevent media outlets from publishing information about private records related to physical and mental health, with exceptions for dangerous fugitives. Reframing consequential treatment of criminal behavior through the etiological lens of an epidemiological health crisis of mind, body, spirit and soul would fundamentally pave the way for society to accomplish the task of rehabilitation-without impediments caused by unnecessary publicity and subsequent extortion.
