[abcnews.go.com - 1/19/21] RICHMOND, Va. -- Two Virginia Democratic lawmakers are spearheading a push to repeal a decades-old law that allows the state to hold certain sex offenders at psychiatric facilities indefinitely after their criminal sentences if they are deemed “sexually violent predators.” Critics say civil commitment laws are fundamentally unfair and violate the constitutional prohibition against punishing someone twice for the same crime....
The Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws (ACSOL) is dedicated to protecting the Constitution by restoring the civil rights of registrants and their families. In order to achieve that objective, ACSOL will educate and litigate as well as support or oppose legislation.
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After refusing to provide registrants with their tier assignment letters, the City of Long Beach has now agreed to provide those letters to registrants three days a week - Tuesdays, Wednesday, and Thursdays -- between 6:15 a.m. and 3 p.m. The City requests registrants to call 562-570-5692 before coming to the registration office so that their tier assignment letter will be ready for pick...
[startribune.com - 1/18/21] Outbreak fuels long-simmering tensions over civil commitment after sentences. A group of sex offenders at a northern Minnesota treatment center is refusing to attend therapy sessions, while others are wearing black clothing as a show of solidarity, amid growing unrest after three men housed there died and scores more were sickened by the novel coronavirus. The acts of defiance were organized...
18
Jan
2021
[familysafetyfoundation.org - 1/18/21] This Thursday, January 21, the Washington House State Government and Tribal Relations committee will vote on HB 1078. If this bill becomes law, voting rights will be restored to all Washington state citizens who have been convicted of a felony as soon as they are released from incarceration. Under current law, voting rights are only restored after the person is released...
The laws just got a little stricter for Washington sex offenders after a recent state Supreme Court ruling that applies to offenders from out of state who move here. Full Article Opinion
[Tamara Rice Lave in arizonastatelawjournal.org - 1/13/21] In this Article, I consider ways in which Arizona’s laws regarding sex offenders should be reformed. I begin by focusing on laws that are designed to deal with the danger posed by convicted sex offenders: registration requirements, residence restrictions, and civil commitment. I contend that the state has overstated the risk posed by convicted sex offenders and...
[floridaactioncommittee.org - 1/15/21] [ACSOL disclaimer: Our re-posting of this Florida Action Committee article is only a courtesy to ACSOL readers and not an endorsement. Please do your own research, starting with carefully reading the article and comments on the FAC website] From HomePro Telecommunications: I have immediate openings for part-time Survey Representatives. I started HomePro Telecommunications because I’ve heard from so many people that...
12
Jan
2021
[hulldailymail.co.uk - 1/11/21] Amy Gray was angry that her ex had left her for another woman so pretended to meet a 14-year-old for sex A Hull woman hacked into her ex-boyfriend's Facebook account, arranged to meet a 14-year-old for sex and then alerted a paedophile vigilante group in a bizarre revenge plot. Amy Gray, 37, of Great Thornton Street, said she was angry that...
[dailymail.co.uk - 1/11/2021] County lines gangsters will 'very quickly stop using kids' for drug trafficking after they are placed on the sex offenders' wing in prison, police have said. In their report the criminal justice consultancy Crest Advisory found that being placed in the separated location for prisoners with sexual convictions saw drug dealers 'drop using kids completely' because of the reputational damage this does. Read...
[jjie.org - 1/11/21] Few crimes stimulate such visceral reactions and deep-seated fears as sexual offenses. Accordingly, societal responses to sexual offending such as registration and notification laws tend to be quite punitive and highly stigmatizing for the offender. Yet these social control practices are widely considered by the public to be essential for community safety. However, given lessons learned about the linkages between moral...
[fd.org - 1/10/21] The Fourth Circuit held (link is external) that conditions of supervised release banning legal pornography and internet access are too restrictive and cannot be sustained as "reasonably related" under 18 U.S.C. 3583(d)(1) and are overbroad under 18 U.S.C. 3583(d)(2). The court explained that the district court abused its discretion in imposing an outright ban on defendant possessing legal pornography or entering...
07
Jan
2021
INDIANA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION, et al, Defendants-Appellants. ____________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Indianapolis Division. No. 1:16-cv-02865-RLY-TAB — Richard L. Young, Judge. ____________________ ARGUED JANUARY 14, 2020 — DECIDED JANUARY 6, 2021 ____________________ Before ROVNER, WOOD, and ST. EVE, Circuit Judges. ROVNER, Circuit Judge. Sex offender registration and notification laws have a unique place at the...
[virginiamercury.com - 1/7/21] Members of the Virginia Crime Commission voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to endorse legislation stripping all mandatory minimum sentences from state code. The sweeping proposal, which lawmakers plan to introduce when the General Assembly convenes later this month, would eliminate mandatory jail and prison terms attached to 224 offenses that range from drunken driving to child rape. Lawmakers on the commission who backed...
[hot975fm.com - 1/5/21] ... But three North Dakota lawmakers are working to make sure other victims get the justice they deserve. The lawmakers had been planning bills that would extend the statute of limitations for reporting and prosecuting sex crimes before the Attorney General made his decision. Learn more about the potential bills here. Read the full article and links to the proposed bills Related: Lawmakers seek to extend...
The Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Law (ACSOL) and the registrant community is the focus of a newly published book by ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. The book, Show Up - Stand Up - Speak, offers insights and identifies trends in the registrant community. "The purpose of the book is to educate the public regarding the daily challenges faced by registrants and their loved...
06
Jan
2021
[law.com - 1/5/21] In this article, the author outlines the significant flaws of the sex offender risk assessment instrument. A second article to be published later will explain why these deficiencies are not adequately corrected by court departure determinations. Convicted sex offenders under New York law must have their risk of reoffense assessed by courts under the Sex Offender Registration Act (“SORA” or “Megan’s...
A client housed in a Minnesota sex offender treatment facility has died from COVID-19, state officials said Monday. Friday's death at the Moose Lake facility is the third COVID-related fatality in the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) since the pandemic surfaced early last year in Minnesota. "We mourn his passing and extend our deepest sympathy to those who loved him and called him friend,"...
05
Jan
2021
Please join ACSOL Executive Director and civil rights attorney Janice Bellucci as well as ACSOL President and criminal defense attorney Chance Oberstein for our next phone meeting. The meeting will be held on Saturday, January 16, beginning at 10 a.m. Pacific time and will last at least two hours. This meeting will be recorded and then posted as an audio recording. A link to...
As of January 1, 2021 the California Tiered Registry Law became effective. In order to share information about the new law and help others with the petitions, please document your experiences with the process in the comments below. Comments should pertain to actual experiences with the Tiered Registry only. In order to maximize the value to others, feel free to include as many details...
[Southwestern University Law Review - papers.ssrn.com - 12/3/20] Abstract: An essay on how the term "sex offender" is functionally meaningless, and invites policy responses that are out of step with the reality of sexual harm. These policy responses, in turn, hobble our efforts to reckon with sexual harm, foreclose accountability and redemption, and elide more effective approaches. View the download page