Debbie Nathan

(originally posted March 03rd 2008; reposted due to technical difficulties)

Calling all serious civil libertarians! News you can use:

The first political protest against sex offender civil commitment took place March 2. It happened in Coalinga, Calif., outside the grounds of a 1,500-bed state facility - the biggest sex offender civil commitment
lockup in the US. Hundreds of men there have already served their criminal time. Yet, in violation of a raft of constitutional rights, they are imprisoned at Coalinga indefinitely. (For more on the situation and on civil commitment in general, see this Los Angeles Times article).

There are words for this in different but similar situations: Gulag. Guantanamo. Both with “GU” at the beginning. Maybe “Coalinga” should be renamed “Gu-alinga.”

The protest was attended by dozens of people but got almost no coverage, except from a local TV station (see here).

For more information about the movement to insure civil rights for sex
offenders - the most reviled group in America (except, perhaps, for
accused Muslim terrorists) - visit this link.

(Post publication, one comment received from French Wall
March 3rd, 2008 | 6:02 pm)

For info re: the hunger strike and and action leading up to this
protest, check out “Uprising at California Sex Gulag”