Sex offender's probation revoked

This is clear proof that sex offenders will not receive justice in a court of law. This man violated nothing, in fact, if the facts of the article are correct, he went beyond what was necessary to stay compliant. He was railroaded here!

1-6-2010 Kentucky:

COVINGTON - A judge revoked a registered sex offender's probation Tuesday after authorities said he broke his curfew on Halloween, communicated with convicted felons and purchased an inappropriate movie.

Garry R. Unthank, 27, of Independence must now serve the remainder of his five-year sentence. He will be eligible to appear before the parole board after serving 15 percent of that time.

Unthank already served six months after pleading guilty May 2006 to third-degree rape. He had sex with a 15-year-old girl he coached in basketball at Community Christian Academy in Independence.

Kenton Circuit Judge Patricia Summe had declined to revoke Unthank's probation on two prior occasions, once after he admitted smoking marijuana.

He got in trouble with authorities again when he failed to answer his door during a mandatory curfew for some sex offenders on Halloween.

Unthank's attorney, Robert Lotz, said his client was home but didn't think he was allowed to answer the door. Lotz produced mobile phone records that showed his client called the probation office within a couple of minutes of the knock on his door. Unthank said he was calling to ask whether he should answer the door but it was after hours and no one answered the phone.

While Unthank's probation agreement states he isn't to answer the door on Halloween, it also states he is to allow probation and parole officers into his home for spot checks on that day.

During a subsequent search of Unthank's home, a probation officer found two open envelopes from convicted felons. Authorities said that proved he had violated probation by communicating with felons. Lotz said they were unsolicited letters.

Also found during the search was the movie "Fired Up!," a comedy about two high school boys who ditch football camp for cheerleader camp.

Authorities said Unthank's probation banned him from owning children's movies or sexually explicit movies. It was rated PG-13 but Unthank purchased the non-rated version at Wal-Mart.

Unthank had been on home incarceration with an ankle bracelet pending the outcome of the revocation hearing. He was locked up in the Kenton County jail after the ruling. ..Source.. Jim Hannah

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State sets deadline for probation fixes

12-20-2009 Ohio:

State prison officials have given the Hamilton County Probation Department six months to fix the division that handles the worst convicts, or it will no longer pay for the program.

That deadline comes after the state reprimanded the department in the fall when studies showed Hamilton County's intensive probation program was so ineffective that convicts in it are more likely to commit crimes than others convicted of similar crimes who were never supervised.

Hamilton County's 29 percent success rate was the worst of any urban county in the state - despite getting the largest chuck of cash, those studies showed.

Prison officials told the department to shape up or they would take away the $1.7 million they give the Hamilton County Common Pleas Court for the program designed to keep people out of prison. Ongoing talks between the county and state prompted the state earlier this month to set a deadline.

"We are requiring they make changes and accomplish certain things and it has to be done by July 1 or their community correction act prison diversion funding will be in jeopardy," said Linda Janes, deputy director of the prisons' Division of Parole and Community Services.

The changes include better assessment of people between conviction and sentencing, in order to put them on the proper level of supervision; and improved case planning based on the assessment.

Mike Walton, who oversees Hamilton County's Probation Department, said the county last week trained employees on a new state-approved risk assessment system, which will be used in making sure people get the proper level of supervision. The probation department will also work with the pre-trial division - which already does risk assessments for bond purposes when a person is arrested - to do case planning for the most intense cases, Walton said.

"That plan will then be handed off to the (Intensive Supervision Probation) officer," Walton said.

Walton does not view the deadline as a threat. Cutting funding, he pointed out, would mean most of the people on intensive probation would be sent off to prison - which the state is trying to avoid.

The program was created to keep people out of prison, which is more expensive than rehabilitating people in a community setting.

Counties deal with two types of probation. One is traditional oversight of low-level criminals who don't need to be locked up. The second, at issue here, is intensive supervision probation which is paid for by the state, managed by the court, and is considered the last chance for people who would otherwise go to prison. People in the program have committed violent crimes or are sex offenders. In Hamilton County, 23 intensive supervision probation officers oversee between 68 and 80 convicts, according to the program's supervisor.

Part of the program's success is measured by how many people complete the program and stay out of prison.

In other counties when a probationer slips up it means a stint in the county jail. But in Hamilton County, with no jail space available, that just isn't an option, explained Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Steve Martin, who heads the court's probation committee.

Here, when somebody slips up they either go back on probation or off to prison, he said.

Martin said the state and county have the same mission.

"Hopefully the ISP program stays," Martin said. "Even if we lock up more people than their arbitrary target, we are changing enough lives and keeping people out of prison to keep the program in place."

Hamilton County Commission President David Pepper, who criticized the program after seeing the study results, said he's encouraged that pre-trial is getting involved and changes will be made.

"This is the best of both worlds," Pepper said. "The state will continue to support us - which we desperately need - and hopefully there is incentive for the court to reform and improve the way it is doing things." ..Source.. Sharon Coolidge

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ID- IDAHO DEPARTMENT OF PROBATION AND PAROLE UNDER INVESTIGATION FOR CORRUPTION AND FRAUD

10-14-2009 Idaho:

Boise, Idaho, District Four of the Idaho Dept. of Probation and Parole.

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 - Special investigators from the Idaho Dept. of Corrections (IDOC) and the U.S. Marshall's Office reportedly have shut down the regional office of Probation and Parole located in Boise, Idaho. Prior to the shut-down, all off-duty personnel were called into the meeting and advised of the shut-down.

According to information, the probation officers were reportedly told to “stand-down” or operate on a limited basis pending the outcome of the investigation. Approximately 36 officers have been told not to report back to work, four officers terminated, and another three or four officers have quit.

The investigation reportedly focuses on probation officers, and mainly from the sex-offenders unit, steering the probationers and parolees (referred to as "Clients" by the officers) into housing owned by special interests, manipulating polygraph exams in order to violate clients unfairly, facilitating the sale of vehicles to the clients for a special interest, violating HIPPA regulations, coercion of clients, and coercion of potential witnesses. Reportedly, there is a captured web-page written by one of the officers in the sex offender unit, detailing how he likes bondage and sado-masochistic behavior. We expect to obtain a reported copy of that "Facebook" web-page soon.

The investigation reportedly branches out to the Ada County, Idaho Prosecutor's Office, the Idaho Dept. of Corrections, S.A.N.E. Solutions (which stands for "sex abuse now ended") of Boise, Idaho and a few other private contractors involved with the system.

There is also a multi-million dollar tort claim filed against the district office by a former inmate whose allegations drew the attention of the IDOC investigators.

Our confidential informant states, "a former probation officer who left the district-four probation office due to the corruption, will be testifying in deposition later this week." Other officers, inmates, and former officers, have also come forward to help the IDOC and U.S. Marshall's investigators resolve the case.

While working on the story I received word from local area law enforcement officers expressing gratitude that the reported corruption of the Probation and Parole Dept. was finally being addressed.

According to our inside sources the investigation could last several months and cause quite a disruption in the justice system in Idaho.

The US~Observer will continue the track this story until it reaches its conclusion. The Public Information Officer (PIO) for the IDOC has yet to return a call.

NOTE: This is an active investigation and the US~Observer has special informants delivering detailed information on this situation. The US~Observer, for a time, will withhold certain names and information regarding reported specific details of this investigation in the interest of cooperation with law enforcement.

..Source.. by Dean Muchow, Investigative Reporter

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