Supervised Release Conditions

Listen to this article

7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: United States of America v. Joseph Canfield

Case No.: 17-2199

Officials: EASTERBROOK and MANION, Circuit Judges, and LEE, ∗ District Judge.

Focus: Supervised Release Conditions

Joseph Canfield was convicted and incarcerated for possessing child pornography. While on supervised release, he violated the conditions of his release by viewing adult pornography on unauthorized smart phones. For this violation, Canfield consented to 180 days of home confinement and an additional year of supervised release. While under those additional conditions, Canfield was discharged from his sex offender treatment program for smoking marijuana, holding an infant without disclosing his offender status to the infant’s mother, and for again watching adult pornography. The district court then revoked Canfield’s supervised release and sentenced him to six months’ imprisonment, followed by five more years of supervised release.

In this appeal, Canfield contests the district court’s imposition of four special supervised release conditions: a requirement that he notify third parties about the risks his offender status poses; a condition that he undergo drug testing and substance abuse treatment at the direction of his probation officer; a prohibition on all access to sexually explicit material; and a ban on using the Internet to access sexually explicit material. For the reasons set forth below, we vacate the first three conditions, affirm the remaining condition, and remand the case to the district court for further proceedings.

Affirmed

Full Text

Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.