With DNA fingerprinting and computer databases, technology increasingly is being used to help put criminals behind bars. But in a high tech twist, anyone with a modem may soon be able to help keep them there.
The victim’s rights organization Take Back New York is planning to launch a Web site called ParoleWatch (www.parolewatch.org/) to list the names and backgrounds of rapists, murderers, robbers, and child molesters who are eligible for parole from the New York State prison system. The site will encourage Jane and Joe Citizen to read about a prisoner’s crimes and then fire off an email objecting to their release. Joseph Diamond, executive director of Take Back New York, believes ParoleWatch will advance the victim’s advocacy movement by allowing thousands of Internet users to express their outrage about crime. “This way,” Diamond says, “the parole board knows the public is paying attention.”
Diamond concedes that ParoleWatch is “not overly concerned with the prisoner’s point of view.”
Meanwhile, the group faces some stumbling blocks. Take Back New York needs US$50,000 to put the site into full swing, and the New York State Department of Correctional Services has yet to decide if it will provide lists of prospective parolees.
Logistics and thorny questions of justice aside, Diamond thinks ParoleWatch will both clean up the streets and polish the Internet’s image. “The Internet has gotten a bad rap with all the talk of pedophiles and Heaven’s Gate. What we’re doing is pro-society, pro-community,” he says. “If you take a poll of average Americans, most would say, ‘Now this is a great use of the Internet.’”
This article originally appeared in the September issue of Wired magazine.
