Restrictive Residency Rules and the Illusion of Public Safety

The latest strategy to restrict where convicted sex offenders live is to create parks where none exist to force registered sex offenders to move out of a neighborhood. The City of Los Angeles plans to build three pocket parks in the communities of Harbor Gateway and Wilmington. California state law prohibits sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a park, playground school or a daycare center. Some states restrict living within 1,000 feet or near certain bus stops. There are similar residence restrictive laws in every state along with…

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OR: Bill would give break to some young sex offenders

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Some young offenders convicted of having sex with underage partners would be able to request the crime be removed from their records under a bill narrowly passed by the Oregon House on Wednesday. Voting 31 to 27, the House sent the bill to the Senate with little discussion. Under the bill, in order for adult offenders to apply to have their records erased, coercion or force could not have been used in the sex act. Other conditions include completion of all required court-ordered programs and treatments. Full…

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Busted! Offenders Adds Sex Offender Registry Information from Sacramento, California

Busted! Grid, the leading innovator in the aggregation of crime information, announces the addition of sex offender registry information from Sacramento, California to the Busted! Offenders database. Over 6,600 registered sex offenders living and working in Sacramento have been added to the BustedOffenders.com website. The addition will help ease family’s safety concerns among people in the city who come in contact with their children. Full Article

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California RSOL Challenges Santa Ana Ordinance, Registration Process

 California RSOL filed a lawsuit in federal district court on May 2 challenging the sex offender ordinance and sex offender registration process in the City of Santa Ana. The ordinance contains presence restrictions including a prohibition of registrants using the city’s public library. The registration process requires all registrants to register inside the Santa Ana Jail for periods up to four hours as well to wear a prison uniform. Registrants are not allowed to leave during the registration process and are prohibited from using cell phones or any other communications…

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Former Facebook exec joins Chelsea’s Law effort

Chris Kelly, a former Facebook executive who authored and financed a highly successful California initiative to stop sex trafficking, has joined the effort to pass Chelsea’s Law in all 50 states. Signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2010, after unanimously passing both houses of the state Legislature, Chelsea’s Law is a one-strike mandate for sexual predators convicted of a violent sexual assault on a child. It’s named after Chelsea King, a 17-year-old Poway girl who was brutally raped and murdered by a convicted sex offender who was paroled after serving…

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Report: Registry does more harm than good for teen sex offenders

(CNN) — Joshua Gravens can’t do a lot of the normal things parents do, like drop his son off at school, attend parent-teacher conferences, or take his daughter to the park, a library or anywhere else children gather. For the offense of inappropriately touching his 8-year-old sister when he was 12, Gravens, 26, has spent almost half his life as a registered sex offender. The designation subjects him to residency and zoning restrictions that dictate where he can live and spend time. It has also made him the target of harassment,…

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Rights group seeks halt to placing juveniles on public sex-offender registries

NEW YORK — Government authorities should end the practice of placing juveniles’ names on publicly accessible sex-offender registries, Human Rights Watch says in a report warning of lasting and unwarranted harm to some youths. Some law enforcement officials and victims’ rights advocates agree the current registry system is flawed and support steps to allow more discretion in juvenile offenders’ cases. Offenses triggering inclusion on the registries can range widely — from rape to consensual sex between children to “sexting” of photos that depict nudity or sexual activity. Full Article https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/05/01/us-more-harm-goodhttp://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/us0513_ForUpload_1.pdfhttps://www.hrw.org/news/2013/05/01/qa-raised-registry

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Civil Rights Attorney Speaks Out in Defense

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. – There’s new information on what a civil rights attorney says needs to be happening with ____ ____, the sexually violent predator recently released in Santa Barbara County. She says his release as a transient is doing him no favors, and she says ____ deserves a home. Janice Bellucci has been advocating for reform to sex offender rights for many years now. Although Bellucci admits she’s been ridiculed many times for her views, she sticks firmly by them. “They have declared these people to be safe to…

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