A lawsuit challenging CDCR’s requirement that registered citizens post signs on the front door of their residences on Halloween has been expanded to include an individual in Los Angeles. Similar to the original plaintiff in the case who lives in San Diego County, the man in L.A. was told by his parole officer that he must post a sign on the front door of his home. “Both plaintiffs believe their lives will be in danger if they post a sign on the front door of their homes,” stated CA RSOL…
Read MoreMonth: October 2015
NY: Local group pushes for hard-copy sex offender registry
When Buffalo’s Common Council meeting is called to order Tuesday afternoon, a local group of parents and community leaders will be calling on the city to be more proactive about its sex offenders. “A lot of people are not computer savvy. We have a lot of foreigners in our city, who may not be able to read and write correct English. We need the registration list to be sent out. The disconnect is that they’re not providing this to us,” he said. Full Article
Read MoreChris Hansen Is Back To Catching Predators
In mid-August, the police department in Fairfield, Connecticut, received a most unusual phone call. It was from Chris Hansen, former host of the infamous NBC reality series To Catch A Predator, which filmed the arrests of men caught soliciting sex from underage decoys online. Hansen informed the department that he was setting up a sex sting in Fairfield that would mirror the operations he became famous for a decade ago, with one key difference: This time, he was going at it without the backing of a major—or any—television network. It…
Read MoreHow Safe Are Trick-or-Treaters?
States, municipalities, and parole departments have adopted policies banning known sex offenders from Halloween activities, based on the worry that there is unusual risk on these days. The existence of this risk has not been empirically established. National Incident-Base Reporting System crime report data from 1997 through 2005 were used to examine daily population adjusted rates from 67,045 nonfamilial sex crimes against children aged 12 years and less. Halloween rates were compared with expectations based on time, seasonality, and weekday periodicity. Rates did not differ from expectation, no increased rate…
Read More“BE AFRAID. BE VERY AFRAID.”
It’s Halloween again. It’s my first Halloween since being released from prison. and until Monday, I didn’t really care. Seriously, I didn’t care. I’ve never been a big fan of Halloween. It was always a pain-in-the-ass “holiday” where it’s socially permissible for kids I don’t know to bang on my door. Annoying. Go away. But if I don’t give them candy, I’m the asshole. And it wasn’t much better when I was a kid. I always felt like a mooch asking people I didn’t know to just give me candy.…
Read MoreL.A. school board fires Rafe Esquith, one of nation’s most lauded teachers
Flowery praise of teachers is a standard part of speeches by superintendents, school board members and principals. But they never mention a sad truth. If our most energetic and effective educators make others look bad, someone is eventually going to punish them for that. Full Article
Read MoreCampaign: Keep CCA out of Dallas
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) is trying to move into Dallas. Let’s say no! Corrections Corporation of America, or CCA, makes a huge profit off of locking up people and even entire immigrant families. Now, this deplorable company with a history of inhumane treatment and a plethora of human rights violations has set its sights on winning an 80 YEAR contract with Dallas County. Several years ago, CCA was kicked out of Dallas after repeated violence and ignorance of human suffering occurred at Dawson State Jail (nicknamed Texas’ Worst Jail).…
Read More“I Am The Creepy Guy at the Park”
Yesterday was a beautiful day, I think you will agree. I decided to take a short walk from my house on Hamilton Street to Dana Park, which I have been coming to almost daily since 1989, the year my son was born. As I often do, I brought my camera, sat on a bench for about 10 minutes, did one lap around the park and headed home. I had barely gotten across the street when three police cars pulled up: I was told to stop, and swiftly surrounded by six…
Read MoreOrange home to fifth-highest amount of sex offenders in O.C.
The Panther, Chapman University Student Paper – The city of Orange has the fifth highest number of registered sex offenders among the 34 cities in Orange County, according to Megan’s Law’s, a website that lists registered sex offenders in California. Orange has 91 registered sex offenders, 24 of which are within a 2-mile radius of Chapman University. Eighteen of the offenders were arrested for performing or attempting “lewd” acts with a child under the age of 14, and there is one offender who was arrested for rape. Full Article
Read MoreLawsuit challenges Halloween sex offender requirement [update 3 with more media links]
This story has been picked up by Reuters News Service and was on the main page of US msn.com (screenshot). http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/california-sex-offender-sues-over-halloween-sign-and-rules/ SAN DIEGO — The group California Reform Sex Offender Laws and a sex offender on parole filed a lawsuit in San Diego federal court Wednesday challenging a requirement that sex offenders on parole post a sign on the front door of their home on Halloween, as required by the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Full Article Related Media http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Registered-Sex-Offender-Sues-Halloween-Safety-Program-333742971.html http://www.kogo.com/onair/demaio-report-56776/demaio-report-commentary-lawsuit-seeks-to-14038184 Carl DeMaio asks tough questions of the attorney…
Read MoreFL: Unmanned Drones and Sex Offenders
TALLAHASSEE, FLA. — A state lawmaker from Central Florida has filed a bill that would make it a crime for registered sex offenders to use a remote control drone to spy on kids or take their pictures. Senator Dorothy Hukill of Port Orange says predators are required to stay away from schools, playgrounds and other places where children gather… but there’s nothing in the law about drones. “What they can’t do personally, they can do with a drone,” she said. “They can do it pretty unobtrusively without people being aware or knowing…
Read MoreCA RSOL Challenges Halloween Sign Requirement in Federal Court [updated with complaint]
California Reform Sex Offender Laws (CA RSOL) and a registrant on parole filed a lawsuit in federal court today challenging a requirement that registrants on parole post a sign on the front door of their home on Halloween. The requirement is levied by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) as a blanket restriction on all registrant parolees in San Diego. “CDCR’s requirement that all registrant parolees post a sign on the front door of their residence violates the First Amendment because it compels speech,” stated Janice Bellucci, attorney…
Read MoreUK: Internet child sex abusers urged to get help in new campaign
A national video campaign has been launched to encourage people who view images of child sexual abuse online to seek help. The initiative is modelled on anti-drink drive and anti-knife crime campaigns. Full Article
Read MoreWe are all sex offenders now — Happy Halloween.
2008 – One can almost bet that a politician is, right this moment, concocting some new stupid piece of legislation. And he will crow if he manages to pass the new absurdity into law — and the more absurd it is, the more likely it is that it will pass. Consider that we are now about to enter Halloween. It is not a holiday I have ever particularly enjoyed, not even as a child. And my general response has been to ignore it. I don’t wear a costume and I…
Read MoreOK: One State Just Announced Plans To Castrate Sex Offenders
According to recent reports, Oklahoma State Senator mark Allen has just proposed a bill that seeks to chemically castrate violent sex offenders. The proposal follows the lead of Florida and California. Under the new measure, first time sex offenders could undergo the procedure for early release. Second time offenders would have no choice in the matter. Full Article
Read MoreOH: Convicted sex offender seeks chance to take Ohio bar exam
The Ohio Supreme Court is debating whether a convicted sex offender who wants to be a lawyer should be allowed to take the state bar exam. The court scheduled a Tuesday hearing for the request by ____ ____, a former Army officer convicted in military court of sex-related offenses after his arrest in 1998 in an FBI sting operation in which he thought he was meeting a 15-year-old girl for sex. Full Article
Read MoreWithdrawn Plea, Vacated Convictions Included in Ever Expanding Reach of Sex Offender Registration
SORNA, the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, became law in 2006. We recently posted a piece about how the Fifth and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeals have expanded the definition of what constitutes a sex offense under the law. These two circuits were following the trend in SORNA cases. In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Kebodeaux said “SORNA’s general changes designed to make more uniform what had been ‘a patchwork of federal and 50 individual state registration systems” which had “’loopholes and deficiencies’ that had…
Read MoreJustice Can Be Served Without Putting Kids Behind Bars
Last month, the Seattle City Council resolved to end the practice of putting young lawbreakers behind bars. Resolution 31614, which passed unanimously, is a commitment to “eliminate the need to detain or incarcerate youth” by cutting off the “school-to-prison pipeline” and finding alternatives to incarceration. Full Article
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