B.C. suspends penile sex tests on young offenders

[outdoors]

B.C. suspends penile sex tests on young offenders
Last Updated: Wednesday, July 28, 2010 | 12:52 PM PT Comments164Recommend60.CBC News
The B.C. government has suspended a controversial test called a penile plethysmograph, which it was using to assess young sex offenders to determine their risk of reoffending after treatment.

On Wednesday, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association demanded the government intervene after it learned of the tests.

Within hours, the government suspended the sex testing after the provincial advocate for children and youth announced she would conduct a review.

B.C.'s Children's Representative Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond says she only learned last week of this clinical testing on young people, about a week before the BCCLA went public with its concerns.

Turpel-Lafond says after she raised concerns with senior ministry officials, the practice was suspended.

"They have assured me this testing is not happening at the moment and they will not continue this testing until my office has completed a review of the matter," she said.

"I think we're going to look very carefully at the balancing of the rights of the youth, their vulnerability, the process that was used," she said. "Is this a necessary tool? Is it valuable? I think we're really going to have to look at all of the key issues with this."

Youths shown images of naked children
During the test, a youth would attach a device to his penis that is designed to measure his physical sexual arousal.

Researchers in another room then play images of adults having sex, followed by images of naked children and infants, as they monitor the youth's level of arousal, according to Robert Holmes, the president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.

The images are accompanied by audio of a male voice that describes forced intercourse with male and female infants as young as two, according to Holmes.

The youth's genitals are covered by a sheet during the testing, and the youth is monitored by researchers behind one-way glass who measure whether or not there is some kind of stimulation effect, said Holmes.

"Male children, often abuse victims themselves, are subjected to this treatment by a government responsible for their care and well-being," said Holmes.

The youth subjects are predominantly children involved in the criminal justice system in B.C., he said.

"In our view, serious rights issues are involved with this. That is particularly so given that the individuals involved are vulnerable youth. The public is entitled to a full explanation," he said.

"These tests are a clear breach of the children's basic human rights. In any other context, subjecting children to violent pornography would be considered sexual abuse," said Annabel Webb, director of the advocacy group Justice for Girls.

Proponents of the program say a youth's parents have consented to the tests, which they say allow officials to predict whether the youths are likely to reoffend.

But Holmes questioned whether consent was properly obtained from the youths and their families. He also said the test has a high error rate and could adversely affect the youths involved.

Used to determine risk of reoffending
The tests are conducted by Youth Forensic Psychiatric Services, part of the Ministry for Children and Family Development.

Children and Family Development Minister Mary Polak says the test is conducted only on young people who have committed serious sexual offences as part of a treatment process to try to determine the youth's likelihood of reoffending.

"The ministry relies on the advice of medical professionals and clinical practitioners with regard to research and therapeutic intervention as it relates to the treatment of youth who have committed — and have been found guilty of — serious sexual offences," Polak said in a statement released Wednesday.

Polak said it's completely voluntary, involves parental or guardian consent and can be withdrawn at any stage, but she takes the concerns seriously and will co-operate with the review by the Representative for Children and Youth.


Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/07/28/bc-penile-sex-tests-young-offenders.html#ixzz0v25nc5gI

[zuberi]

I wonder if they'll start using female castration like what goes on in India?

[bobx23456]

There is absolutely no limit to the depths of depravity that government officials will go if allowed absolute power to torment and destroy the people.   The government filth who think up stuff like this are the same kind of filth who organized and ran Auschwitz, Belsen, and other extermination programs.   When given power to torture, torment, and destroy, they sink lower and lower without limit.   They are the government. 

Blessings

Bob

[zuberi]

There is absolutely no limit to the depths of depravity that government officials will go if allowed absolute power to torment and destroy the people.   The government filth who think up stuff like this are the same kind of filth who organized and ran Auschwitz, Belsen, and other extermination programs.   When given power to torture, torment, and destroy, they sink lower and lower without limit.   They are the government. 

Blessings

Bob

In some religions, the government is Satan!

[Serpent Slayer]

This has me wondering who's producing child porn on behalf of the government with impunity.

[dcm]

I seem to remember hearing about this when I was in about the eight^th grade. At the time kids and even adults would be shown especially designed porn type movies with wires and such attached to their dicks to measure how hard they got. This was court ordered. The kid who mentioned it implied he'd been the projectionist at the police department, though I doubt that; more likely someone he knew like an older brother. His version was if the victim got "too hard" he was immediately sent to prison as a rapist. The movies mentioned were heterosexual.

I'd bet this goes back to at least the 1890s, when movies began to appear in arcades.

[bobx23456]

I seem to remember hearing about this when I was in about the eight^th grade. At the time kids and even adults would be shown especially designed porn type movies with wires and such attached to their dicks to measure how hard they got. This was court ordered. The kid who mentioned it implied he'd been the projectionist at the police department, though I doubt that; more likely someone he knew like an older brother. His version was if the victim got "too hard" he was immediately sent to prison as a rapist. The movies mentioned were heterosexual.

I'd bet this goes back to at least the 1890s, when movies began to appear in arcades.

You become a "potential rapist."   Off to prison for life.


Blessings

Bob

[outdoors]

B.C. ends sex tests as researcher charged
Last Updated: Thursday, July 29, 2010 | 3:20 PM PT Comments115Recommend57.CBC News
The B.C. government has cancelled a program that tested the sexual responses of young sex offenders by attaching sensors to their genitals, after it learned one of the researchers has been charged with a sexual offence.

The program was supposed to help develop treatments for sex offenders, but Children's Minister Mary Polak says the questionable nature of the procedure outweighs any possible medical benefits.

"Like most British Columbians, I was immediately concerned to learn of the testing being conducted involving young offenders, which is hard to fathom," said Polak.

"I asked staff to examine the use of this procedure and, based on the information provided, I have instructed ministry staff to permanently stop any use of this procedure on youth in provincial facilities in British Columbia,"

Polak said she decided to take quick action to kill the program after discovering one of the medical technicians who conducted the tests was charged this month with sexual assault, although the alleged offence is not related to the government work.

Under the program, sex offenders as young as 13 were required to look at images of nude and semi-nude children and listen to audio descriptions of forced sex while their physical responses were measured.

"The safety and well-being of youth is always the top priority of myself and this ministry, and I believe most citizens would agree that the questionable nature of this procedure outweighs any possible medical benefits. I am told that plans for the young people who receive such testing are not compromised by this decision," she said.

Concerns raised
The B.C. Civil Liberties Association and the Vancouver-based group Justice For Girls raised concerns about the program, with the association saying it was primitive and appeared to be a remnant from the 1950s.

B.C. Children's Representative Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond is investigating the program, which started 25 years ago, to see if any of the participants were traumatized.

"The Representative for Children and Youth is currently reviewing this program and we will continue to support that review and provide any assistance the Representative requires. But to be clear, this type of procedure will no longer be used," said Polak.

With files from The Canadian Press

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/07/29/bc-penile-testing-young-offenders-halted.html#ixzz0vAtRCJuh

[outdoors]

one poster wrote the folowing;

AverageCanadian Mom wrote:
ALL those involved need to be charged criminally. This is what they were doing, according to the following information on the BC Liberties website:

The subjects(,) while they are shown images of nude children (had the following scenarios described to them verbally):

According to the publication of the study by the government branch in the journal Sexual Abuse, the 10 test stimuli used on the children were scenarios involving the following:

coercive sexual activity with a male infant,
coercive sexual activity with a very young male (aged 2-5),
coercive sexual activity with a prepubescent male (aged 6-11),
forced sexual activity with a prepubescent male (aged 6-11),
coercive sexual activity with a female infant,
coercive sexual activity with a very young female (aged 2-5),
coercive sexual activity with a prepubescent female (aged 6-11),
forced sexual activity with a prepubescent female (aged 6-11),
nonforced sexual activity with an adolescent female, and
forced sexual activity with an adolescent female.

In other words, these little children, who were being "tested" were co-erced into watching child porn, and at the same time, someone was describing the above (child porn) - and hard core child porn - scenarios.

WHY ISN'T THIS BEING PROSECUTED AS THE CRIME IT IS?

the cbc feminist mods are in the process of deleting and removing comments

[bobx23456]

the cbc feminist mods are in the process of deleting and removing comments

Naturally.   


Blessings

Bob

[outdoors]

Sex test controversy troubles B.C. youth rep
Penile plethysmograph used to measure sexual response in young offenders
Last Updated: Friday, July 30, 2010 | 5:02 PM PT Comments61Recommend21.CBC News
B.C.'s representative for children and youth says she was disturbed to learn criminal charges were laid against a former government contractor who was testing the sexual responses of young sex offenders by attaching sensors to their genitals.

"I can tell you I'm shaken by how the issue has come forward," Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond told CBC News.

Earlier this week, it was revealed that the B.C. government was using a controversial test, called a penile plethysmograph, to gauge how likely young sex offenders were to reoffend.

The government announced it was suspending the tests after the news broke on Wednesday.

The next day, Children's Minister Mary Polak halted the program permanently, saying one of the medical technicians who conducted the tests was charged with sexual assault this month, in a case not related to the individual's government work.

However, Turpel-Lafond said the government's assurance the incident wasn't connected to his work isn't good enough.

"It doesn't reassure me," she said.

"If there is some suggestion that [the researchers] themselves have some deviant sexual activity and behaviour, it's very significant to me that we do the due diligence to make sure that none of the adolescents … were exposed to anything inappropriate."

Should have been notified 'weeks ago': Turpel-Lafond
Turpel-Lafond only learned about the controversial tests last week — and found out about the charges Thursday when the news was made public.

She was "deeply, deeply troubled" by the news and said her office should have been informed earlier.

"Absolutely, I should have been notified," she told CBC News on Friday.

"I should have been notified weeks ago, and I'm very disappointed by that, and I have expressed that disappointment today to ministry officials."

Polak had said she, too was shocked when she learned of the charges. Turpel-Lafond said that's troubling as it indicates that the ministry doesn't seem to be keeping tabs on its own services.

"The ministry appears to not have known what has been going on with one of its very significant services, or hasn't bothered to notify my office where there's been some serious issues," she said.

The children and youth representative is planning a full investigation to answer what she says are a lot of disturbing questions.

Youths shown sexual images
The penile plethysmographs were being conducted by Youth Forensic Psychiatric Services, part of the Ministry for Children and Family Development. The program was supposed to help develop treatments for sex offenders.

During the test, the young offenders would attach a device to their penis designed to measure physical sexual arousal.

Researchers would then show the teens sexual images — including ones of adults having sex and naked children and infants — as they monitored their level of arousal.

The subjects were monitored by researchers behind one-way glass, and their genitals were covered by a sheet during the testing.

Polak has said the program was completely voluntary and required the consent of the subject's parent or guardian. She also said the youths were free to withdraw from the program at any stage.


Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/07/30/bc-penile-testing-charges-turpel-lafond.html#ixzz0vEqZhlvp

[outdoors]

B.C. used penile teen sex test for decades
Last Updated: Sunday, August 8, 2010 | 11:34 AM PT Comments152Recommend51.CBC News
Young B.C. sex offenders were subjected to controversial testing with a genital measuring device for more than two decades, despite regular concerns from within government.

Government officials, clinicians and researchers within the B.C. Children and Family Development Ministry were often at odds over the continued testing with a genital sensor device designed to measure arousal rates.

Mary Polak, the B.C. children and family development minister, pulled the plug on the penile plethysmograph last month. (CBC)Children's Minister Mary Polak pulled the plug on the penile plethysmograph last month. She acted not because of objections to the program but because one of the contractors administering the tests on young offenders has been charged with sexual assault.

Alan Markwart, director of youth forensic psychiatric services, said in an interview that some government officials considered the use of the penile plethysmograph on young sex offenders invasive. Others argued its use could prevent future sex crimes as well as provide a measure of what turns on young sex criminals.

Under the program, sex offenders as young as 13 were required to look at images of nude and semi-nude children and listen to audio descriptions of forced sex while their physical responses were measured.

"It's been long recognized that the procedure is quite intrusive," Markwart said. "It's been a matter of a kind of ongoing internal discussion about, 'Is this really merited, given the level of intrusion and the effectiveness versus the potential benefits?"'

'Results and benefits'
He said the continued use of the penile plethysmograph on young sex offenders was permitted because those arguing for the testing consistently won out over those raising objections.

"That's the primary consideration — the results and the benefits from those results," said Markwart, who would not say whether he personally supported or opposed the testing.

"Do they outweigh the intrusiveness? Quite obviously, because it was continued, the answer in the past has been 'Yes.' "

The penile plethysmograph is used in prisons in Canada and the United States to monitor adult sex offenders, but its use on young people is not widely known.

'That's the primary consideration, the results and the benefits from those results. Do they outweigh the intrusiveness? Quite obviously, because it was continued, the answer in the past has been Yes.'

— Alan Markwart, director of youth forensic psychiatric servicesA spokeswomen for the Mental Health Centre at Penetanguishene, Ont., said a public investigation is underway into whether the penile plethysmograph was used on young people there. She would not comment further.

The penile plethysmograph was developed in the 1950s by East Bloc Cold War scientists to determine whether officers refusing military service on claims they were homosexual were telling the truth.

The penile plethysmograph is a mercury-in-rubber strain gauge that is placed around the base of the penis and measures minute changes in penis circumference.

Adult prisoners have referred to it as a "peter-meter."

Polak noted the charge against the contractor was not related to his work, but it was the last straw for her for a program that raised deep concerns about the treatment of youth in British Columbia.

She said the benefits of the testing results don't outweigh the test's "potential to be harmful to the young people on whom it is administered."

The program was mentioned in the 2008-2009 annual report for Youth Forensic Psychiatric Services, which said debate about the use of the device continued within government, as did discussion about trends in treatment of young sex offenders.

Further research warranted: report
A July 2009 report examining 132 B.C. youths involved in penile plethysmograph testing concluded that further research on the device with young people was warranted.

Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, B.C.'s representative for children and youth, has launched a full-scale investigation into the program.

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association and Vancouver-based youth advocacy group, Justice For Girls, called the testing primitive and abusive towards young people.

When the ministry announced the program would be dropped, it also said the data that had been collected would not be used.

Asia Czapska, a spokeswoman for Justice for Girls, an organization that lobbies primarily for the rights of young women, called the testing a human rights abuse.

"This was just egregious," she said. "It's shocking."

Czapska said the presence of the sex testing in B.C. youth custody facilities shows a need for more independent oversight of youth jails.


Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/08/08/bc-teen-sex-testing.html#ixzz0w6YBL5Cd

[outdoors]

the people running this program should be charged for their perverted hate crimes against boy's.

 if anyone were to do this to an animal for any reason they would surely be charged with animal abuse

 but then again this is Canada where misandry and torture of men/fathers and boy's is a daily phenomenom

[pour la frime]

As horrible as these devices are and amount to all out humiliation and abuse of a human, it seems like the courts won't side with any defense of prisoner human rights.

These are some excerpts of a Federal court case that took place in 1995.  Although the issue being argued over is not about genital measuring devices, it gives some good insight as to how the courts view prisoner human rights.  In this case, the Defendant's arguments against prisoner humiliation and abuse were well prepared and presented.  The courts ruled in favor of the Plaintiff and denied an appeal to the Defendant.   

Albert JOHNSON, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
Richard J. PHELAN, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
No. 93-3753.
United States Court of Appeals,
Seventh Circuit. (court)
Argued Aug. 1, 1995.
Decided Oct. 24, 1995.
Rehearing and Suggestion for Rehearing En Banc Denied Jan.
29, 1996.*

Claim of unjustified prison humiliation---------------------------------------------------

If prison officials know that they are subjecting adult and teenage male prisoners to gratuitous humiliation, the infliction is deliberate, even if the officials are not actuated by any punitive purpose and are not even certain that humiliation will result.  A substantial number of these prison and jail inmates have not been convicted of a crime. They are merely charged with crime, and awaiting trial. Some of them may actually be innocent.   The way it is now, it is wrongful to break the law even when the lawbreaker is flawed, weak, retarded, unstable, ignorant, brutalized, profoundly disadvantaged, violent, vicious, or evil to the core. But we should have a realistic conception of the composition of the prison and jail population before deciding that they are a scum entitled to nothing better than what a vengeful populace and a resource-starved penal system choose to give them. We must not exaggerate the distance between "us," the lawful ones, the respectable ones, and the prison and jail population; for such exaggeration will make it too easy for us to deny that population the rudiments of humane consideration.

Feminists have forced this social construct-------------------------------------

There are different ways to look upon the inmates of prisons and jails in the United States in 1995. One way is to look upon them as members of a different species, indeed as a type of vermin, devoid of human dignity and entitled to no respect; and then no issue concerning the degrading or brutalizing treatment of prisoners would arise. In particular there would be no inhibitions about using prisoners as the subject of experiments, including social experiments such as the experiment of seeing whether the sexes can be made interchangeable. The parading of naked male inmates in front of female guards, or of naked female inmates in front of male guards, would be no more problematic than "cross-sex surveillance" in a kennel.


http://ftp.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F3/69/69.F3d.144.93-3753.html

[outdoors]

fuckers