After a weekend in the Burleigh County, N.D., detention center last summer, Dustin Gawrylow was relieved when the stateâs attorney decided not to press charges against him.
Gawrylow, 38, had been in a fistfight with his brother â a âbrotherly scuffle,â he called it â and was surprised to be arrested after going to the police to explain what happened.
But even though his charges didnât stick around, his booking photo did.
âIn the meantime, my mug shot got out, and it circulated widely in political circles,â said Gawrylow, who in 2012 started the North Dakota Watchdog Network, a libertarian-leaning group that advocates for lower taxes and less government spending.
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Online, Mug Shots Are Forever. Some States Want to Change That.
Dustin Gawrylow, left, whose mug shot once circulated online after he was arrested but not charged, voices opposition to a ballot measure in Bismarck, North Dakota. The state is one of six where lawmakers have discussed legislation that would stem the publication of mug shots before a conviction.
Tom Stromme
The Bismarck Tribune via The Associated Press
After a weekend in the Burleigh County, North Dakota, detention center last summer, Dustin Gawrylow was relieved when the state’s attorney decided not to press charges against him.
Why it’s still so hard to wipe away a criminal record despite promise of law Murphy signed
Today 9:00 AM
Kim was 20 years old when she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary.
Now 34, she works the same job she had prior to the offense. She says she turned down a series of promotions because a quick background check would disqualify her because her the company has a rule against putting people with criminal pasts into management.
But Kim, whose name has been changed because her record was cleared, has a second chance. The state expunged her crime in November. That means her past criminal record is sealed from public view. Future landlords or employers won’t be able to find it on a background check. Without expungements, people can struggle to secure good jobs, student loans or housing due to their tainted records.
Critics argue the new integration could mimic notoriously faulty background checks without necessarily making dating apps safer
A safety move or a privacy invasion? Tinder will open its website up so that people can check the criminal records of its users. Photograph: Akhtar Soomro/Reuters
A safety move or a privacy invasion? Tinder will open its website up so that people can check the criminal records of its users. Photograph: Akhtar Soomro/Reuters
HopeCorrigan
Tue 13 Apr 2021 02.00 EDT
When Jerrel Gantt was released from prison after three years, he was handed a pamphlet about healthcare and nothing else. He began searching for employment, a deep source of anxiety for him, and secured housing through a ministry in New York City. He later enrolled in school part-time.
The Stress of Injustice: Public Defenders and the Frontline of American Inequality
The title of this post is the title of this notable new paper now available via SSRN and authored by Valerio Baćak, Sarah Lageson and Kathleen Powell. Here is its abstract:
Fairness and due process in the criminal justice system are all but unattainable without effective legal representation of indigent defendants, yet we know little about attorneys who do this critical work public defenders. Using semi-structured interviews, this study investigated occupational stress in a sample of 87 public defenders across the United States. We show how the intense and varied chronic stressors experienced at work originate in what we define as the stress of injustice: the social and psychological demands of working in a punitive system with laws and practices that target and punish those who are the most disadvantaged. Our findings are centered around three shifts in American criminal justice that mani