During yesterday’s lesson, I said the New York State Inmate Lookup did not have everyone who has been imprisoned in the database, and while that’s still true, it’s not as I explained it. Here’s the explanation of who’s not in the database, directly from the “Who’s Listed Here?” section of the site…
Everyone sentenced to state prison since the early 1970’s is listed in the database, except youthful offenders and those who have had their convictions set aside by a court.
The example I was thinking of when I mentioned some lower-level offenders not being listed was from the New York State Sex Offender Registry. Here’s the explanation from that site…
Police and law enforcement have access to information on all sex offenders (levels 1, 2 and 3). However, under the law, information on level 1 (low-risk) offenders is not available on the public website. Only level 2 and 3 offenders are listed on the public website.
Sorry about that. I’ll mark down my own grade!