OK Computer? Not So Fast, Say Some Terms of Supervised Release

[WSJ_law_blog]

When felons are released from prison, what is the best way to give them back their freedom but make sure they don’t commit a crime again?

That’s a question asked by colleague Amir Efrati on Thursday in the WSJ’s weekly Law Journal column. The issue arises perhaps most often, writes Efrati, with federal sex-offense cases, some of which involve illegal-porn downloads. Some judges are imposing what felons say are broad or arbitrary restrictions on how they live once they are freed from prison, like banning them from drinking alcohol and constraining their living arrangements.

Generally speaking, judges are allowed to impose special conditions during supervised release, as long as the conditions are related to the crime and don’t cause “unnecessary deprivations” of liberty. Until recently, challenges to supervised release conditions were rare. Most defendants who pleaded guilty focused their appeals on challenging prison time, lawyers say.

But that might be changing.”I tell my clients now they need to worry just as much about the supervised release as about the sentence because it will have equally long-lasting life consequences for them,” said Troy Stabenow, a federal public defender in Jefferson City, Mo.

One of Stabenow’s clients, William Robert Bender, served roughly four years in prison for engaging in sexual acts with a teenager when he was 27 years old. After he was released last year, he violated the conditions of his supervised release by viewing adult pornography online, which occurred at a public library.

For the infraction, Bender received an 18-month federal prison sentence. The judge also imposed a 10-year term of supervised release during which Bender wouldn’t be allowed to possess a computer or any pornography, couldn’t enter a library or “frequent places where minors are known to frequent” without prior approval. On appeal, a higher court struck down those special conditions, except for the computer ban. Bender and his probation officer declined to comment.

Concedes Kansas City, Mo., federal judge Scott O. Wright, who imposed the special conditions on Bender, that determining how best to rehabilitate sex offenders is difficult. “When you understand there’s no cure for them, the only thing you can do is try to help them live in a somewhat normal condition.”

Appeals courts that have struck down Internet bans say former convicts can’t make a transition to normal life without using the Web, even at work. “Is someone going to be sent back to prison for using an iPhone?” asked Doug Berman, a law professor at Ohio State University who researches sentencing issues.

Special conditions on where and how felons live are becoming increasingly difficult to comply with, adds. “Frankly they are often crazy,” he said. “Where are you going to get a job?