Sex Offender policies are not adequately protecting the public from some of the worst predators according to this column in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Jim Hines. Rather than give more lenient sentences to predators who molest relatives, he points out that "Common sense tells us that someone who is willing to rape a young stepchild or nephew is far more dangerous than a 21-year-old male who enters a sexual relationship with a well-developed 15-year-old girl."

The ACLU has brought a lawsuit against the Orange County Sheriff's Department on behalf of a Muslim woman who was forced to remove her headscarf while held in jail, according to this Associated Press story. The local policy requires inmates to remove hats, belts, scarves and other items that might jeopardize their safety or the safety of guards. It seems likely that a lawsuit would also be filed after a woman utilized a headscarf to hang herself in her cell.