Forgotten Majority

Advocating for the just and humane treatment of those who are incarcerated.

Author: Managing Editor

  • INMATE VISITATION SUSPENDED INDEFINITELY

    Yes, you heard it right.  If you are incarcerated in the state of Florida, your visitation privileges can be suspended indefinitely.  Doesn’t matter if you’re married, in a relationship, have children or just a long, lost friend, visitation is considered a privilege and can be denied accordingly.  Although extensive studies have shown that family support […]

  • ROMEO AND JULIET SEXUAL OFFENDER LAWS

    This article, scripted by Linda Lowen for About.com, addresses the Romeo & Juliet Law which Florida, Indiana, Connecticut and Texas adopted in 2007. This law allows a teen whose sexual partner is at least 14-years-of-age and 4 years younger or less, to be exempt from the Sexual Offender registry. When Shakespeare brought Romeo and Juliet […]

  • ‘TEXTBOOK’ TRAGEDY

     On Christmas Eve 1993,  the Scott sisters, Jamie and Gladys, were arrested for luring two men down a road in Forest Mississippi where the men were held at bay with a shotgun and robbed.  Three related male teens – aged 14-18 – confessed to the robbery in turn for light sentences but were made to testify that the sisters were involved.  […]

  • STARTLING STATS

    A February 10th article in the Huffington Post quotes Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, stating that there are more African Americans under correctional control today – in prison or jail, on probation or parole – than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began. This sudden and dramatic mass incarceration of […]

  • MAKE DEMANDS BEFORE YOU VOTE

    Challenge your political candidates.  Seriously consider those candidates who will take the unpopular stand on improving Correctional policies and reinstate the Parole system in the state of Florida.  Though getting ‘tough on crime’ has been politically profitable to candidates, there is a lot of power in the hands of the 200,000+ Florida voters who have a loved one incarcerated in the Florida Department of […]

  • COURTS BAR INMATES FROM FILING CRUCIAL MOTIONS!

    When there are discrepancies in court procedure, legal representation or sentencing, defendants have the right to file an appeal or a motion to correct the errors.  During the original trial, Public Defenders and private attorneys are appointed by the court to represent indigent defendants.  However, once convicted and placed into the hands of the Florida Department of Corrections, the financially challenged […]

  • STOP!!! BEFORE YOU POST BOND…

    Before you post bond make sure that you do not become a victim of system error and pay more than is required.  At the first appearance, after being arrested, the court will set bond.  Oftentimes, defendants are released on their own recognizance (ROR) so many individuals will not bond out immediately but will wait to see what will happen at their […]

  • SEXUAL OFFENDER OR SEXUAL PREDATOR?

    Many wonder if there is any distinct difference between a sexual predator and a sexual offender.  The answer is a resounding YES.   Wikipedia defines a sex offender (also sexual offender, sex abuser or sexual abuser) as a person who committed a sex crime, although what constitutes a sex crime differs by culture and by legal […]

  • ESTABLISHING PATERNITY FROM PRISON

    “YOU ARE NOT THE FATHER!!”  If you’ve ever watched ‘Maury’, you know those words can send a guy into a dancing frenzy or give him cramps worse than any menstrual cycle.  Nevertheless, inmates may not be aware that they may have fathered a child prior to their incarceration and are bewildered because they’ve just received that […]

  • INMATES & CHILD SUPPORT

    The thought of insurmountable child support that continues to accrue during years of incarceration can suck the joy clean out of the hope of going home to a fresh start.  Neither imprisonment nor parole ends a court order to pay child support and a newly released parent will usually not have the means or ability to finance […]