The following Terms apply to all websites produced by The Council of State Governments Justice Center ("The Justice Center").

Although most areas of The Justice Center websites do not require registration, some do. To participate in the Forum or the Local Programs Database, you must register and agree to the applicable Terms of Use below.

The Justice Center reserves the right to change or modify these Terms at any time, effective upon posting the changes here.

GENERAL TERMS OF USE

It is prohibited to use any Justice Center website to engage in any illegal activity; interfere with the operation of the site in any way, or interfere with anyone's use or enjoyment of the site; send mass mailings, junk mail, or spam or distribute or publish advertisements or solicitations, including petitions; transmit or post any unlawful, harassing, libelous, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable or harmful material; transmit or post any content that would be harmful to minors in any manner; impersonate any person or entity or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity; transmit or post any content that you are prohibited from transmitting or posting; modify, sell, lease, scrape content from or aggregate, sublicense, market, or otherwise change or commercially exploit in any way the site or any component thereof other than as may be expressly permitted in writing by The Justice Center or as permitted pursuant to any fair use, fair dealing, or similar provisions of applicable laws; or infringe on any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, or other proprietary rights of any person or entity.

Justice Center websites are supported by numerous federal and private funding sources. Points of view on Justice Center website are those of Justice Center staff or of registered users of Justice Center websites and do not represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice, members of the Council of State Governments, the Justice Center's board of directors, or any other funders acknowledged on Justice Center websites.

The Justice Center reserves the right to report user data to authorized parties if required to do so by law.

FORUM TERMS OF USE

The Forum reflects the ideas and opinions of each contributor and does not reflect positions of The Justice Center. The inclusion of these ideas and opinions on The Forum is not an endorsement of the ideas and opinions by The Justice Center. The Justice Center cannot guarantee the accuracy or quality of submissions to the Forum, nor is The Justice Center liable for any content contained in it.

If you think that a Forum contribution violates the Standards described below, or appropriate standards for a professional community, please send an e-mail to consensusproject@csg.org with a brief description of your concern.

All addresses of, or links to, external websites contained in The Forum are provided strictly for the convenience of the user. The Justice Center is not responsible or liable for the content of any external page which is referenced or linked by The Forum. Links from The Forum to external sites does not constitute endorsement, approval, certification or control of these external websites by The Justice Center and does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, efficacy, or timeliness of information located at such websites.

Rules for participating
Anyone who is at least eighteen years old, has a valid e-mail address, and agrees to these Terms of Use can participate in the Forum. Participation in the Forum constitutes agreement to the Terms.

Registering and completing your profile
To participate in the Forum you need to register or log in to the Consensus Project website (http://consensusproject.org). To foster professional discussion, please provide your real first and last name. You will be asked to provide additional information about yourself, some of which is optional, and will be visible to other registered users of this Forum. Your first and last name will be visible to general website users as well as your job title and affiliated organization, should you choose to provide this information. It is prohibited to pose as another person or entity or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent an affiliation with a person or entity.

Editing your post
You can edit a post or comment for ten minutes after submitting it. After that, to make an addition or correction, you will need to submit a follow-up post. The Justice Center reserves the right to edit or remove any content that violates the Standards in the following section.

Standards for contributors

• Use a Professional and Courteous Tone. Please be polite and respectful of other contributors, even if you disagree with their statements. Constructive debate is welcome; personal attacks are not. In the spirit of professional courtesy, please focus comments on the substance of the discussion and refrain from commenting about typos or matters of style unless they alter meaning.
• Contribute Relevant Content. Please take care to ensure that your submissions remain "on topic" and relevant to the professionals [or individuals] using this site. When responding to a post, please be sure you are adding relevant information that makes sense within the context of the original post and builds on previous comments. Content that is obscene, malicious, libelous, or abusive is prohibited, as is spam, advertisements, commercial solicitations, and self-promoting materials.
• Provide References. To help others understand your positions, please support your arguments with background, references, citations, and links when possible.
• Avoid Engaging in Partisan Politics or Electioneering. The Justice Center cannot engage in political "electioneering" or use any of its resources to allow others to engage in partisan political activities, including lobbying. Please do not make statements in this Forum that endorse or oppose any political party or any candidate for public office.
• Comply with Copyright Law and Fair Use Standards. Don’t post copyrighted materials unless you have permission to do so. According to Fair Use conventions, you may quote short excerpts of someone else's work (one or two sentences, a paragraph at most), but don’t reproduce long passages. Instead, reference and when possible link to your sources.
• Respect Others’ Privacy. Do not include the names of minors in your submissions. Unless people (adults) involved in the issues you write about are colleagues or public figures, get their permission before mentioning them.
• Protect Your Own Privacy. Do not include your home address or phone number or other personal information that you do not want publicly available online in your Forum submissions.

Rights. Rights to all submissions are granted under the terms of an Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons Public License. Please read the full text of this license at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/.

Changes of Terms. The Justice Center reserves the right to change or modify these Terms at any time, effective upon posting the changes here. Your continued use of the Forum following posting of any changes or modifications to the Terms constitutes your acceptance of them. Please review these Terms periodically.

Violation of Terms. Submissions that violate these Terms will be edited or removed. In addition, users who violate these Terms may be blocked from further participation.

LOCAL PROGRAMS DATABASE TERMS OF USE

Justice Center staff has not conducted an empirical evaluation of any of the programs provided in the Local Programs Database. Accordingly, The Justice Center does not promote any of these programs as "models" or "best practices." Administrators of the programs included in the Local Programs Database are largely responsible for maintaining information about their programs. Accordingly, Justice Center staff cannot guarantee that the information in the database is completely current or comprehensive.

Visitors agree not to post or transmit any defamatory, abusive, obscene, threatening, or illegal material, or any other material that infringes on the ability of others to use the site.

The Justice Center retains the right to deny access to anyone who has violated these Terms of Use, or to delete, move, or edit any postings that come to our attention that we consider unacceptable or inappropriate. Program contacts and other visitors may post their e-mail addresses or other contact information on our site. Visitors agree not to gather these e-mail addresses for purposes of sending mass e-mails or for any non-professional or commercial purposes.