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35 Law & Psychol. Rev. 209 (2011)
Home is Where the Park Bench Is: The Psychological Benefits and Consequences of Requiring Homeless Sex Offenders to Present a Physical Address for Release from Alabama Prisons

handle is hein.journals/lpsyr35 and id is 211 raw text is: HOME IS WHERE THE PARK BENCH IS: THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BENEFITS AND CONSEQUENCES OF REQUIRING HOMELESS SEX OFFENDERS TO PRESENT A PHYSICAL ADDRESS FOR RELEASE FROM ALABAMA PRISONS Krista Leonard INTRODUCTION Jeffrey Seagle is one of four men in the Alabama prison system who challenged a special form of life without the possibility of parole.' Seagle was not sentenced to life without parole by a jury or a judge. Instead, his possibly interminable prison sentence was given by the Alabama Commu- nity Notification Act (CNA).2 Seagle, a convicted rapist, was rearrested at the end of his sentence because he was unable to provide a valid ac- tual address, which the October 2005 version of the Alabama CNA re- quired within forty-five days prior to release in order for a convicted sex offender to be allowed to reenter society. After being denied release because of their inability to provide the ad- dress even of a couch to sleep on at a friend's house, Seagle and three other inmates launched a full-fledged constitutional attack4 on the actual address requirement of the Alabama sex offender notification law as it stood in 2005.' A Montgomery circuit court judge agreed with Seagle and dismissed his indictment on the grounds that the Alabama CNA was un- constitutionally vague and unconstitutional as applied to indigent, homeless sex offenders.6 The State lost on appeal in November 2010.7 There is no indication that the State plans to appeal the decision to the Alabama Su- preme Court. 1. Bob Johnson, Court to Decide If Sex Offenders Must Have a Home, PRESS-REGISTER (MO- bile), Aug. 29, 2010, at C7, available at 2010 WLNR 17830143. Although the court talked about only three inmates - Jeffrey Seagle, Thornal Adams, and Richard Coppage - a fourth, Phillip Hand- ley, also filed suit. 2. See ALA. CODE §15-20-22(a)(1) (1975) (as amended Oct. 1, 2005). Section 15-20-22(a)(1) was amended again effective May 21, 2009. The 2009 amendment, among other things, extended the num- ber of days before release from 45 to 180 and provided that an adult criminal sex offender must declare Itihe actual physical address at which he or she will reside or live upon release (emphasis added). 3. See id. 4. See Brief of Respondent, State of Alabama v. Seagle, No. CR-08-1489, 2009 WL 5256067 (Ala. Crim. App. Nov. 24, 2009). 5. See ALA. CODE § 15-20-22(a)(1) (as amended Oct. 1, 2005). 6. State of Alabama v. Seagle, No. CC-09-733 (Montgomery Cty. Cir. Ct. 2009). 7. State of Alabama v. Adams, No. CR-08-1728, 2010 WL 4380236 (Ala. Crim. App. Nov. 5, 2010).

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