crimson wrote on Mar 6^th, 2002 at 7:35am:

My son is a convicted sex offender on probations right now. I would like to let you guys in on a little secret. When you are placed on probation with a sex offence they can brand you with any type of probation they want. Almost all probations concerning sex offences the person is placed on intensive probation. Which means that your probation officer can make you do almost anything they want you to. They can make you move within a week if they want, they can tell you whom you can and can not talk to. Where you can work, when you can work, cerfews, and none of this has to be approved by the courts or do they have to have a rational explaination for this. What i have found with the iowa sex offender program is that my son was placed on a pretty strict probation to start off with. But they didnt do "everything" they could have. They use the polygraph to either decrease or increase your priviledges during probation and since they do not have to explain WHY they are doing this they can use 'tools' like the polygraph without worrying about the legal stuff about it. So my son started off with a cerfew, pretty strict work limitations, they didnt put one of those security bracelets on him, but he had to see them every week. Since he failed the polygraph he has the bracelet, he has to see them every week and also gets a phone call most nights, his cerfew is tighter, and he isnt allowed to hang out with anyone 21 years of age or younger. Since they could do all this at any given moment without explaination they are saved from having to prove the polygraph as being an exact science or a legitimate tool in the case of a sex offender. If they "feel" there is something going on they can tighten the belt around the person's neck at any moment and the polygraph is just another extension of thier "feel". I hope you can understand this.  ;D

Nobody understands this more than me. i am a 16 year old sex offender who has been in counselling with a therapist that has more of a reputation than richard nixon. i have counselled with her for the last year of my life and i hate it. I dont deny my offense, and how i screwed up my life, but more importantly the life of a little girl and her family. But since the topic is probation let me get on that. When i first got caught with my offense i was put into jail for a lousy 10 days (i will tell you now i got off really easy, besides counselling and probation) and than i was put on house arrest for 5 months, without the gem (ankle bracelet) after i went to court and pleaded guilty i was put on intensive probation for the next two years of my life. I was told that i will not look at pornography and i will obey all of my probation rules. including poligraphing every sixths months maybe more. So now i am on intensive probation and i have taken two poligraphs, passed both ;D. But there was a catch. just yesterday i found out that i passed my polygraph and now i am spending two more days in jail for it. dont get me wrong, two days is not much for somebody who commited a sexual assault but they got me for looking at porn on the internet......before i was on probation.....before i pleaded guilty, does aanybody see a problem with that. so i got my butt chewed because of something that really had no relevance to my case. so if you guys have any pointers on how to fix this i would greatly appreciate it. By the way i have been doing all my counselling homework and completing succesfull all of my homework, i have a job at Pizza Hut, go to high school, and i am at classes part-time at my community college. I think i am doing pretty well and the courts, probation, and couselling cant seem to see that. my grandma, who took me in right away thinks they should trust me, and i just keep trying to tell her that that will probably never happen.