GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - Joel Steinberg back in NYC released early

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/lo...ries-headlines

They let this prick back into society. Dont knwo if anyone remembers this story...

Elmira -- Convicted child killer Joel Steinberg returned to New York City today after serving 16 years for the horrific 1987 beating death of his 6-year-old adopted daughter.

Barraged by media, a stunned looking Steinberg emerged from a white limousine and ducked into a Central Park West halfway house. Wearing a green jacket, green baseball cap and blue jeans, Steinberg was accompanied by his lawyer. Neither one of them spoke with reporters.

JoAnne Page, Executive Director of the Fortune Society, where Steinberg will be staying, said he "is with us as a client and will be treated as any other client". The Society is a not-for-profit community organization that helps ex-cons ease back into the community.

Steinberg, now 63, spent the last 13 years at the Southport Correctional Facility. He served two-thirds of the maximum 25-year manslaughter sentence. He has continued to deny responsibility for the Lisa Steinberg's death.

Steinberg left the upstate prison with $104 in earnings from his inmate account, wearing state-issued denim jeans, light brown sweatshirt and sneakers. Defense attorney Darnay Hoffmann picked him up in a white stretch limousine in Pine City, about 150 miles west of New York City.

While in transit to Manhattan along route 17 two similar Lincoln Town limousines joined in an attempt to confuse the media in pursuit. A half-dozen cars with reporters followed Steinberg into Manhattan.

The death of Lisa Steinberg in November 1987 galvanized the city and triggered a probe into childcare services. Though expected, his release still outrages many.

Wednesday, a small group of local residents protested across the street from the Fortune Society handing out home made posters saying, "No domestic criminal in our neighborhood".

Luis Tejada, Executive Director of Mirabal Sisters Cultural Community Center located on 140th said, "it's the wrong message for our community." "This is a contradiction, that's the problem," he said.

Not everyone in the neighborhood is unhappy to have Steinberg near by. Rolando Rodriguez, 69, lives around the corner from the Fortune Society and said, "For two years they bring people here and for two years they don't bother nobody."

"Steinberg paid for what he did right?" he said. Rodriguez raised two children in the area and has two grandchildren living with him.

Steinberg will stay at the half-way house for an undisclosed time. He has a job offer -- pending approval from the state Department of Corrections -- of a $250-a-week job at New York Confidential, a local public access cable television program.

But one expert familiar with the difficulties involved with ex-cons re-entering society said Steinberg faces an uphill battle.

"The worse the conviction, the harder it is to come home, because you're dealing with such negative expectations," said Paige.

"The crime he got convicted of was terrible. And it's one that really hit people hard. And the people haven't forgotten," said Paige, whose organization has been contracted by the parole board to manage Steinberg's post-prison reform.

Since he entered Southport, a high-security facility about 10 miles south of here, the state parole board denied him five times. He served 18 years of an 8 1/3 to 25 year sentence for first-degree manslaughter.

The parole board would have denied his release again this year, but was powerless to do so because of a 1996 law that granted Steinberg freedom after serving two-thirds of his sentence with "good time," a Department of Corrections spokeswoman said.

In prison, Steinberg completed a state-mandated Alternatives to Violence Program and earned $21.70 a week as an inmate paralegal since May 1991.

While on parole, he will be confined to the New York City metropolitan area. Other conditions include a requirement that he not drive or seek a driver's license; not have contact with his victims or anyone 18 years old or younger; not go online; and observe a 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. curfew.

Steinberg is also required to attend anger management and drug counseling classes. Paige, who said she has not met Steinberg, declined to elaborate on the treatment program.

She said however, that he could easily earn up to $9 an hour because of his work history as a lawyer.

"You've got a combination of pluses and minuses when you have somebody who has a good deal of professional training, but also a crime under his belt," said Paige. "A very bad crime."

Lisa died three days after a vicious beating in the Greenwich Village apartment, where she lived with Steinberg and his former lover, Hedda Nussbaum. According to Steinberg, he shared a unique, loving relationship with the slain girl -- an assertion that led to five rejections by the parole board.

Nussbaum called police after finding the 6-year-old naked, bruised and not breathing. Nussbaum, initially a co-defendant, herself had a split lip, broken ribs, a broken nose and a fractured jaw she said were inflicted by Steinberg.

According to Nussbaum's testimony, Steinberg struck Lisa for staring at him, then ignored her injuries and smoked cocaine.

Nussbaum, now 59, who said she would flee New York rather than face Steinberg again, has quit her job at a domestic violence center. The Journal News reported Wednesday that she resigned last week from My Sister's Place in White Plains. Her small white house in Carmel was empty Tuesday.