Janice Bellucci is a mother of two, the wife of a pastor and a former Girl Scout leader active in volunteer work. She lives in a gated community an hour’s drive north of Santa Barbara, with needlepoint pillows on the sofa and a vegetable garden in the backyard. She is also the public face of an organization advocating for the closest thing to an untouchable caste in our society: California’s 88,000 registered sex offenders.
A former aerospace lawyer, Bellucci is the president of the California chapter of Reform Sex Offender Laws, a national group of offenders, family members, psychologists and attorneys registered as a nonprofit. Full article
Reading the article begs tears.
It’s just so very hard to be sure of the path.
(What a truly troubled world.)
J., you are doing the right thing.
But it will be centuries before a solution is forthcoming, so sad…so sad.
Godspeed.
Great article!
The answers a clear as glass. Those convicted should be help accountable and pay the price just as ANY OTHER LAW that is broken requires.
THEN
They are released and FREE…again just as ANY OTHER LAW that was broken.
If they are a danger to “society” then lockem up…BUT…if they have paid the price and are allowed to be “free” then let them be really FREE!
Every other “criminal” is allowed a 2nd chance in America EXCEPT the RSO!
That is simply unAmerican and simply unconstitutional.
First, it was a very good article and I’m glad the issue is starting to move. 20 years ago the concept of gay marriage seemed impossible. Look where we are now. We can make the same kind of progress with registration laws because it is the right thing. Eventually, society returns to rationality.
Second, I do take issue with the author when she said that the shunning was based on conduct and not status. We have a legal system that holds people accountable for their conduct. If you are convicted of a crime, a judge gives you a sentence. That is your punishment for the crime.
Unlike every other crime, we are given the additional responsibility of registering. Registering by itself is not punishment, but having the status of “Registered Sex Offender” brings with is punishing regulation and punishing consequences. What if we had “Registered Drug Users” or “Registered Drunk Drivers”. Then more people would see how punishing registration really is.
And the additional punishment comes from the status, not from the conduct. The conduct has already been punished.
Except for that, it was a pretty good article.
An article that portrays Janice and CA RSOL in a sympathetic light, but does LITTLE to advance the cause that CA RSOL is fighting for. I wonder whether this article will have any impact on whether AB 702 gets voted OUT OF COMMITTEE (Assembly Public Safety!) next week.
Well, if it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, poops like a duck, then it isn’t a chicken! However the system describes their actions taken against the majority of RSO’s, it’s still punishment, punitive, penalty or whatever. This “select” group faces additional restrictions and penalties that no other group of people face. I say it’s all duck poop!
Abolish this UNCONSTITUTIONAL registry !!! We want NOTHING short of that !!! The registry as we know it VIOLATES everthing in the US & State constitutions. Due proces…VIOLATED. Ex post facto…VIOLATED. Due process…VIOLATED. Cruel and unusual punishment…VIOLATED.
We want NO part of this registry……. NONE !!!
continued…….Civil liberties…Violated.Freedom of speech…violated..etc etc etc