It’d be an interesting lawsuit, at least.
Why does a jail have a website?
My brother got arrested for a dime bag. His picture got put up on the jails website. And they advertise. So shouldn't my brother get paid at least a little for providing clicks?
Submitted 5 hours ago by Patnou@lemmy.world to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
Comments
swordgeek@lemmy.ca 5 hours ago
slate@sh.itjust.works 5 hours ago
Arrest records are public. Even if you’re innocent or the charges are dropped or whatever, they still smear your reputation by putting your mugshot up. It can be a good thing too, since it cuts down on the number of people arrested quietly with no disclosed reason.
Beacon@fedia.io 5 hours ago
In no way is that a good thing. A person should be able to acquire and publish their OWN arrest record, but absolutely no one else should be able to without their permission
jqubed@lemmy.world 58 minutes ago
Adding on, there can be good reasons to have arrest records be public and accessible. It can be beneficial for people to know if someone in the community has engaged in dangerous activity that could threaten others around them. Even if that person is able to avoid conviction or negotiate a lesser charge, you might personally want to change your interactions with them. The most common example might be with sex offenders, but that’s also being used for a lot of disingenuous arguments right now, so I’ll offer some others. Say someone is arrested for driving while intoxicated, perhaps someone you know. You might have never noticed them intoxicated before but perhaps they’re just good at hiding it, and you would probably choose not to ride in a vehicle with them driving or let a family member ride with them. Or perhaps you see someone arrested for a violent assault and you’ve also had past experiences with them that were also violent or threatening but never felt like it was worth reporting or felt that reporting the crime might make you less safe. If you or others know that person is in jail it can be easier for you and others to come to the prosecutors to report your own experiences and make it easier for the prosecutors to get a dangerous person out of the public.
On the flip side, the US is supposed to have the principle that someone is innocent until proven guilty. Publicizing arrests before a conviction can make that harder, and there are plenty of examples of innocent people who were “convicted in the media” but later found not guilty in court. That can often place a burden on innocent people to continue defending themselves for years afterwards.
In theory an open and transparent judicial process makes the system harder to abuse. In an effort to prevent punishing innocent people for crimes they did not commit, a judicial process might be designed in way that sometimes allows guilty persons to avoid punishment. The public has a right to know about threats so they can take actions to protect themselves. Wrongly accused individuals should not have to be burdened by false accusations after successfully defending themselves. People who have served their sentence for crimes they committed should not continue to be punished after completing their sentence.
Balancing these different interests is challenging and I think it’s pretty easy to say the current system is not at a good balance. Perhaps a good balance isn’t possible. The world is far more complicated than little comments online can make it seem. I think it’s pretty easy, though, to say the government should not be arresting people and making money by selling information about those arrests. A commercial entity taking that information and publishing it for a profit can also be morally questionable and should perhaps have legal restrictions. Outlets that exist solely to find the most attractive mug shots are at least in bad taste. But the question gets harder the closer this gets to a reputable news organization that is also trying to responsibly balance these considerations.
I’d certainly be interested to see the results of a lawsuit based on the original question.
Ziggurat@jlai.lu 4 hours ago
one more example showing how US standard are incredibly low regarding basic human rights…
WhiteOakBayou@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Thank you for making the second point. It does suck that I am forever searchable on an arrest database but I’ll take that over the cops being able to disappear me as a matter of course, as opposed to having to do extra work to disappear me. This is why the suspension of due process for ANY crime is bad. I know I’m preaching to the choir here.
NotSteve_@piefed.ca 4 hours ago
It sounds very American
ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
Welcome to America, where slavery is one of the largest businesses under a brand new name.
Skullgrid@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Why does a jail have a website?
Why does a publically owned website have ads? It should be funded by the public as a service, not as a product.
Cuberoot@lemmynsfw.com 3 hours ago
Will this suspect be sentenced to more than 6 months? Place your wager now at JailKings, the official betting partner of the Lake County Lockup. Get a $50 signup bonus with your first deposit. See official terms and conditions. Problem gamblers call 1-800-YOU-LOSE for help.
LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 3 hours ago
Are you sure it’s publicly owned?
tfm@piefed.europe.pub 5 hours ago
To promote it to politicians probably
HikingVet@lemmy.ca 5 hours ago
And why is it advertising?
Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Because they’re all part of a huge repression apparatus.
Patnou@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Really don’t have the answer for that. But plenty of cities or counties due. Its almost like being on the Sex Registry. Because anything on the net will never be completely deleted. Insert Beyonce ugly face pic here.
InvalidName2@lemmy.zip 2 hours ago
I don’t know if they still have it on their site, but one of the main regional news sites used to have a section of their site devoted to posting peoples’ mugshots. It was one of their highest traffic pages/sections, too.
I found out about it after my dad jokingly mentioned that my uncle made the news and then sent me a link. It was a slideshow with hundreds of peoples’ arrest photos along with name, age, where they were arrested, and a brief description of what they were arrested for.
My uncle was on there because he was charged with “terroristic threats” or something along that line, it’s been a while. Apparently someone called the cops on him. He was drunk when they arrived and acting belligerent, granted he was always drunk and belligerent. At some point, he put his finger over his lips and shushed the cops.
The police officers claim he was doing a hand sign of a gun and that he actually pretended to shoot at them and the “shushing” was actually him blowing the smoke away from the barrel of his hand gun.
Anyway, the charges were dropped, but that arrest photo of him stayed up on that news website for a very long time after.
HubertManne@piefed.social 2 hours ago
One comment of a comment mentioned it but the amendment that outlaws slavery has an exception for prisoners. Now he was just arrested so he may have a case but if he was in prison I doubt it.
Patnou@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
County Jail
Greg@lemmy.ca 1 hour ago
wtf, where do you live? Is it a police state? How would publicly posting photos of arrested people possibly help with rehabilitation?
Asidonhopo@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
I remember when my friend visited Arizona and they came back with a full color newspaper-style police publication with hundreds of mugshots and the crimes they were accused of, these were published weekly and widely available. Pretty fun to browse through, wish my state did that.
FenderStratocaster@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
What state?
betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world 29 minutes ago
Solid, most likely, or OP would have a higher priority concern.
0ndead@infosec.pub 4 hours ago
Might depend if the website is for the publicly funded police, or the privately owned jail/prison. If a privately owned business is using your likeness without permission, you could sue to have it removed.
betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world 27 minutes ago
It’s a mutual benefit thing since they’re advertising his business too.