Inspired by this thread, I was wondering what the most outrageous, unusual, or unusually specific conditions of probation or parole are that have actually been imposed.
For example, has someone ever been forced to live without electrical power, banned from riding public transportation, forced to always be shirtless in public, or required to wear a blue hat as a condition of probation?
Has anyone been given extremely and oddly specific conditions such as “No fishing from the James Street bridge between 4 and 6 am.”(where fishing is normally legal at all times), "No playing Xbox with your daughter on school nights. "(with the implication that playing Xbox with her at other times is fine, and it’s also fine to play Playstation games with her on school nights, because it is not ‘Xbox’), “You must paint your car orange.”, “No chatting with your uncle in Swahili, you must use English or Spanish.”, “No smoking Newport cigarettes.” (with the implication that smoking Marlboros or Camels is perfectly fine), or “If you visit the cathedral downtown you must use the back doors.”?
Kevin Mitnick was forbidden from using cellphones, apparently on the belief that he could whistle into them in a way that would take down the telecommunications infrastructure.
I’ve heard of quite a few provisions to probation that are pretty similar in nature to these examples. It’s not all that unusual, even. Usually it has to do with a restraining order, keeping the person away from another person, making restitution, or otherwise keeping someone from some pattern of behavior that repeatedly brings him in front of the judge.
“13-year-old forbidden to use the word “grass” as a term of abuse in order to threaten people.
The oldest recipient of an ASBO, an 87-year-old man who was sarcastic to his neighbours.
A woman was forbidden to make excessive noise during sex anywhere in England.”
P.S. “Grass” is slang for “Rat out,” “Inform on” “Snitch,” etc.
You don’t get to brag endlessly about how you can do just that, then actually pull a crime and get caught in a nascent field the layman has little grip on and then cry when people take you seriously.
For instance if you brag you can engineer a humanity killing plague in your average kitchen, then you get caught crudely culturing anthrax, don’t be shocked if in the circus that follows you end up banned from the kitchen.
Isn’t there an issue with someone that essentially has to live under a bridge because he is a registered sex offender, he can’t leave the area because no other community wants him and when under probation you are restricted in being able to move house, and the area has so many schools and whatnot that it is difficult to find someplace the legal distance from kids? My google-fu is sucky tonight.
I was a probation officer for many years. The oddest thing I ever saw a judge order was for two adult brothers to live apart - they had to be some distance (a mile or more) apart and could not associate in person without a probation officer present. The reason was they they had been living next door to each other and had swapped their teenage daughters for sex. The games were beginning to expand to the neighbors’ daughters when the whole thing was brought to light and prosecuted. In lieu of prison, they accepted probation, time in local custody and years of close supervision. Their minor children were placed elsehwhere by the family court. The wives were not prosecuted, though they were clearly in the know about something going on. The DA was happy just to get the two brothers.
This was 30 some years ago and I doubt they would get this leniency today. There are mandatory sentences for such crimes that did not exist back then.