The Child Protection eNewsletter

Texas juveniles' sentences to get review… 

The records of most inmates in Texas' scandal-rocked juvenile prison system will be reviewed to determine whether their sentences were unfairly extended, an official investigating the system said.  Read More Here  Time has been added to the sentences of about 90 percent of Texas Youth Commission inmates, commission special master Jay Kimbrough said.  Inmates' families and advocates claim that prison officials often extended sentences for capricious reasons or in retaliation for filing grievances.  "I have no confidence in the integrity of that entire system," Kimbrough said as he announced the probe Friday.

A panel of community activists, prosecutors and juvenile prison officials will review the records on each inmate's sentencing extension and make suggestions to a retired judge who will decide whether the inmate should be immediately released, Kimbrough said.  Governor Rick Perry appointed Kimbrough to investigate the commission early this month after the Dallas Morning News cited a never-released 2005 Texas Rangers report that said boys at one prison had been molested by top officials there.  A later internal investigation confirmed the findings and said commission officials knew of the abuse but did nothing to stop it.  vol5_iss17  and  vol5_iss18

Allegations of sexual abuse at other youth prisons have since emerged, and all members of the commission, which runs the juvenile prisons system, have resigned.  vol5_iss19

In other news… 

A Michigan man who pleaded no contest to entering into a sex pact with his girlfriend and her 15-year-old daughter, and to having had sex with a 12-year-old relative, was sentenced to up to 25 years in prison.  Read More Here  Michael J. Fitzgibbon, 37, was sentenced to up to 15 years for each of four counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct after prosecutors said he, his girlfriend and her daughter signed a contract for the teen to be his sex partner for two months while her mother recovered from surgery.  He was also sentenced to 12 to 25 years for each of two charges of first-degree criminal sexual conduct for having sex with the 12-year-old girl.

A much-anticipated report from the largest and longest-running study of American child care has found that keeping a preschooler in a day care center for a year or more increased the likelihood that the child would become disruptive in class — and that the effect persisted through the sixth grade.  Read More Here  The effect was slight, and well within the normal range for healthy children, the researchers found.  And as expected, parents’ guidance and their genes had by far the strongest influence on how children behaved.

A Kentucky couple is charged with trying to sell a 15-month-old girl for $3,000 and a sport-utility vehicle.  Read More Here

Police arrested a convicted sex offender suspected of abducting a 13-year-old at knifepoint and sexually abusing him before leaving him undressed and handcuffed to a tree.  Read More Here  A tip led police to the 26-year-old man, whose photo was identified by the boy, said Lt. Robert Sprague.  Investigators later found the boy's bracelet and his cell phone at the suspect's Staten Island house, he said.  Charges were pending in the case.

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide the constitutionality of a Florida child pornography law that a lower court criticized as criminalizing merely talking about illegal images.  Read More Here

Students at a suburban Detroit Catholic school are being ordered to take down their photos, snappy comments, or anything else they may have posted on MySpace.com.  Read More Here  Friday is the deadline for students at St. Hugo of the Hills Catholic School to follow orders or risk suspension.  School Principal Sister Margaret Van Velzen sent letters home to parents this week saying, in part, that if families allow children to continue their MySpace.com sites, they will not be allowed to return to school.

A Michigan State Police sergeant was arrested in an Internet sting after authorities say he had a graphic sexual conversation with investigators posing as 13- and 14-year-old girls.  Read More Here  The attorney general's office said Kevin Michael Hardoin, 45, also propositioned investigators to watch a sexually explicit act via Web camera.

Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School are conducting trials on human subjects with a drug designed to erase traumatic memories.  Read More Here  "This is all very preliminary," said Dr. Roger Pitman, a Harvard Medical School psychiatrist.  "We're just getting started.  There is some promising preliminary data but no conclusions."

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