At age 10, Maya R. did something that would disturb just about anyone: “Me and my step-brothers, who were ages 8 and 5, ‘flashed’ each other and play-acted sex while fully clothed,” she told Human Rights Watch researcher Nicole Pittman. After copping to the incident in juvenile court, Maya’s punishment was an 18-month sentence in a detention center, mandatory counseling, and a quarter-century of registration as a sex offender. Full Article
Read MoreMonth: August 2015
NV: Sex offenders challenge Nevada supervision law
More than a dozen sex offenders are challenging the Nevada Parole Board’s authority to impose conditions on their lifetime supervision. The offenders, identified only as Does 1-16, filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against several state and local officials, including Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt. According to the lawsuit, the Parole Board has relied on an unconstitutional Nevada law to place movement and residency restrictions on convicted sex offenders who are under its supervision. In some cases, those restrictions have prevented the plaintiffs from attending religious services or associating with certain…
Read MoreDC: Court Denies Challenge to Sex Offender’s Website on Registry Officials
A website that “registers” and posts photos of government employees who work in the District of Columbia’s sex offender registration office is protected by the First Amendment, a D.C. Superior Court held in a February 14, 2014 memorandum opinion. Dennis Sobin, a convicted sex offender, is required to register every three months with the D.C. Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency (CSOSA), and his picture is posted on the District’s sex offender registry. Sobin, 70, spent over ten years in prison for using a minor while filming a pornographic movie,…
Read MoreDon’t confuse sex addicts, offenders
Recent local stories – of a financial aid director abusing his power against women, of a serial child molester, of an alleged rapist – have the disturbing sex offender in mind. We’re told such behavior generally repeats itself; are these offenders addicts? Does it matter? Labeling people as “monsters” is easy. Do we care about the root of their behaviors? Regardless of the answer, North Idaho expert and counselor Ed Dudding says it’s important to distinguish between sex offenders – who may be addicted to sex (71 percent of child…
Read MoreMA: High court shoots down city’s residency restrictions on sex offenders
BOSTON – In a ruling that could affect dozens of Massachusetts communities, the state’s Supreme Judicial Court on Friday agreed an ordinance limiting where sex offenders can live in the city of Lynn cannot stand. Several registered sex offenders sued the city after local officials enacted an ordinance in 2011 that prevented Level 2 and 3 offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school or park. A level 3 offender has been deemed the most likely to commit another crime, according to the state Sex Offender Registry. Full Article…
Read MoreSenate Appropriations Committee Approves SB 448
In a vote of 7 to 0, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved Senate Bill 448 (SB 448) on August 27 by releasing it from the committee’s suspense file. The next step for the bill is a vote on the floor of the Senate next week (Monday, August 31) where it is expected to pass. After passage in the Senate, the bill will be referred to two committees in the Assembly — Public Safety and Appropriations. “Senate Bill 448 must be stopped,” stated CA RSOL president Janice Bellucci. “Although the bill…
Read MoreCollateral damage: Harsh sex offender laws may put whole families at risk
Research says that registries and residency bans leave children of sex offenders vulnerable to bullying, homelessness. When ____ ____, 38, bolts from his desk around 5:30 most weeknights, he’s up against his most important deadline of the day. ____ is an audiovisual editor and social media manager at a Christian television studio in St. Petersburg, Florida. By the time he gets home, he and ____ , his wife of nine years, have just over three hours to make dinner for their three children, squeeze in a half-hour of playtime, get…
Read MoreAL: Sex Offender Law Challenged
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (CN) – Sex offenders in Alabama must comply with debilitating restrictions that encompass “virtually every facet of their lives,” eight men claim in a class action. Eight John Doe plaintiffs sued General Luther Strange III and Secretary of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency John Richardson in Federal Court. The Aug. 20 complaint seeks court relief to prevent application of the Alabama Sex Offender Registration and Community Notification Act, or ASORCNA, claiming the law is unconstitutional. The lawsuit argues that the act violates due process by denying sex offender…
Read MoreNational RSOL: International Travel Group
If you or someone you know was denied entry into another country as a consequence of registration, we want to hear from you. A new group, supported by RSOL National, is examining the issues related to registered citizens traveling, including the practice of the US Government notifying receiving countries that a registrant is traveling there. A representative of FAC will serve on the board of this new group. We want to make sure that your experiences areincluded in our efforts to enable registrants to travel freely and unmolested. Please send…
Read MoreCourts are giving reduced terms to many child-porn defendants
U.S. District Judge James S. Gwin of the Northern District of Ohio polled a jury in February about what jurors thought a suitable sentence would be for ____ ____, a child pornography defendant who was found guilty of having 19 videos and 93 still images on his computer. The jury recommended, on average, a 14-month sentence. Gwin then sentenced ____ to serve five years—longer than the jury recommendation yet significantly shorter than the government’s 20-year recommendation. Full Article
Read MoreNew CDCR Report Reduces Rate of Re-Offense to Less than 1 Percent
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has issued a new report that reflects a significantly lower rate of re-offense for registered citizens on parole. The name of the report is “2014 Outcome Evaluation Report“, however, it was issued by the agency’s Office of Research in late July 2015. According to the report, the rate at which a registered citizen on parole commits a new sex offense is .8 percent. This rate is based upon a study of 5,522 registered citizens who returned to prison over a period of…
Read MoreHow a dubious statistic convinced U.S. courts to approve of indefinite detention [Opinion]
In the 2002 case McKune v. Lile, the Supreme Court upheld a Kansas law that imposed harsher sentences on sex offenders who declined to participate in a prison rehab program. The substance of the Kansas law the court upheld isn’t as important as the language the court used to uphold it. In his opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy reasoned that they pose “such a frightening and high risk of recidivism” which he wrote “has been estimated to be as high as 80%.” Five year earlier, in Kansas v. Hendricks, the court…
Read MoreMI: Anderson sentencing hits home with other parents
BERRIEN COUNTY, Mich. – The Anderson family of Elkhart are back to waiting, after an uneventful court appearance Wednesday afternoon. The judge delayed a decision on resentencing 19-year-old Zach Anderson who must register as a sex offender in Michigan and Indiana. Full Article
Read MoreVigilant Solutions and Watch Systems team to deliver solution for improved registered sex offender compliance
LIVERMORE, Calif., Aug. 19, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Vigilant Solutions and Watch Systems announce today that they have worked together, and in close collaboration with mutual customers, to provide improved abilities to manage registered sex offender compliance efforts throughout the country. Full Press Release
Read MoreJudge Denies TRO, Schedules New Hearing on October 1 [updated with media]
An Orange County Superior Court judge denied a temporary restraining order (TRO) requested by Richard Linington, a registered citizen, and Michelle Moreno, his fiancée, during a hearing on August 19 that would have prevented the enforcement of new residency restrictions in the City of Cypress. Also during the hearing, the judge recommended that the City refrain from enforcing the restrictions until an October 1 hearing on a preliminary injunction. “The City of Cypress has an opportunity to maintain the status quo by choosing not to enforce the new ordinance until…
Read MoreIN: Suit – Law impedes sex offender’s voting rights
HARTFORD CITY – The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana on Tuesday filed a federal class action lawsuit on behalf of a Hartford City man concerned that a change in state law might impede his ability to vote. A new law went into effect July 1 that prohibits “serious sex offenders” from entering school property. “One of the consequences of this is that these persons will be prohibited from voting at their designated polling place if it is located on school property,” the ACLU’s suit, filed in U.S. District Court in…
Read MoreMore fuel for the movement to reform sex offender laws
I’ve written before about the appalling (and unconstitutional) state of our laws regarding prohibitions and restrictions on the activities of convicted sex offenders — restrictions on where they can live, whom they can associate with, the Internet sites they can visit, the jobs they can hold and the places to which they can travel — to which they are subject after they have served whatever sentences were imposed upon them for their crimes. Commenting recently on a decision by the federal district court in Minnesota striking down Minnesota’s egregious post-conviction…
Read MoreThe system for punishing sex offenders is broken (Opinion)
Think “sex offender,” and you probably picture a creepy guy who likes to lure children to his van with candy. But that’s not the whole picture. The sex offender registry, which currently stands at over 850,000 registered sex offenders, is comprised of many people who should not be lumped into the same category as violent sex offenders and pedophiles. People like teenager Zach Anderson. The 19-year-old had sex with a teenage girl he met through a dating app. The girl said she was 17 – above the age of consent –…
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