Collateral 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…

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AL: 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…

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National 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…

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Courts 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

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New 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…

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