Nazaroo said:
This is a good idea, but needs to be carefully thought out:
(1) There would be a real tendency for both prisoners, family, victims to influence or jeopardize their cases by revealing critical information about themselves or the cases, and this is not only illegal, but would probably be an abrogation of justice. A lawyer should be consulted over this one.
(2) There would be an equally pernicious tendency for undercover investigators (and not just prosecutors either) to manipulate and spy upon, and possibly incriminate 'suspects' and their family and friends. This also is a serious human rights/ entrapment issue, which could have frightening consequences for innocent parties.
Needs some careful research, and 'many councels', in this case REAL lawyers.
Hopefully some volunteer 'human rights/Christian' lawyers willing to devote their time to help!!!
i disagree profoundly. For one thing, what prosecutors would actually stake out an internet forum, on the idle hope that maybe one of their defendants' families might innocently post some smoking gun bit of evidence. Absurd!
But more importantly, families of prisoners seeking out a support forum for their specific needs would tend to want prayer for specific, weird, not normal, run- of- the- mill requests that few outside of jail ministry would understand. Major issues related to having an incarcerated 'fill in the blank', that non incarcerated might not even think of. What to do about mean kids in school teasing the kids for their criminal family member, embarrassing news stories & the (understandable) public revulsion over the details of the crime, being on the receiving end of the hostility & venom during grocery shopping, etc., the lonliness faced by the wives & husbands facing their own involuntary 'sentence' of being alone for however long the inmate must serve, apprehension about the future: long & short term, jail visits where kids are not allowed, infrequency of letters, scary letter content that has those left behind unsure of the safety of the fam member, yet powerless to do anything about it. Tons of stuff like that would be discussed, not 'i know where he hid the money, where can i rent a backhoe & how hard are those things to operate?'
I've been involved in jail & prison ministry for years & in general, family members of inmates are as shocked & surprised by the arrest as anyone, totally ignorant of specifics concerning the crime & yeah, i realize that sounds ridiculously unbelievable, but it's true or every spouse of every criminal would be locked up right alongside them for being an accessory. I have yet to hear even one family member ramble on about the crime, always it's the painful aftershocks & how prison has affected the family. I have ministered to i dunno, many dozens of families of inmates & the inmates & this has been my experience.
I think such a forum is a dandy idea & i'd post on it.
i just had an idea. 
