OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) – An attorney asked a federal judge on Wednesday to halt the implementation of the International Megan’s Law bill, which requires sex offenders to be identified as such on their passports. Full Article
Read MoreMonth: March 2016
PA: Smart Talk – Sex offender registries work?
Go to the Pennsylvania State Police website and you can find a link to Megan’s Law website — a list of convicted sex crime offenders. The list includes photographs of the criminal, his or her current address and the crime the person was convicted of. Those on the list must register for 15 years up to the rest of their lives for offenses ranging from luring a child to rape. When an offender relocates, the victim, neighbors, county and others are informed. The idea behind the Megan’s Law website is that the…
Read MoreInternational Megan’s Law Injunction – No decision yet
2:30pm -This if from FAC as Janice speaks with media and others: — We just heard from those in the courtroom that today’s hearing for an injunction temporarily preventing the implementation of the International Megan’s Law (IML) is complete. Janice did a stellar job. The judge in the case did not make a decision at the end of the hearing. Presumably she will take some time, digest, investigate the law and then issue an order in the very near future. Can take days, can take weeks, unlikely more. We will keep…
Read MoreIML Lawsuit – All Media Reports (as of 3/31)
3/31 Judge Asked to Halt Sex Offenders’ Passport Marks (Courthouse News) Attorney: Sex Offender Passport Marker Would Be Dangerous (ABC) 3/30 (post hearing) Attorney: Sex Offender Passport Marker Would Be Dangerous (New York Times / AP) The Latest: Attorney: Sex offender passport marker dangerous (Washington Post / AP) 3/30 (pre hearing) Passport mark for sex offenders law challenged in court (AP) Federal court to hear challenge to “scarlet passport” provision of International Megan’s Law Fear of flying: Sex offenders push back against having unique passports Sex offender passport: Unlawful stigma or valid way to…
Read MoreFL: Lauren Book, Running Unopposed, Raises $1.3 Million Despite Criticisms
Plantation resident Lauren Book, 31, has raised about $1.3 million for her state senate campaign, though she’s running unopposed. Her charity was also awarded a million dollars by the state legislature this session. Book is the daughter of powerful Florida lobbyist Ron Book, and after suffering horrific abuse by a nanny in her teen years, she founded Lauren’s Kids, which raises awareness about childhood sexual abuse and advocates for legislation affecting sex offenders. Full Article
Read MoreTX: Dallas PD shuts down sex offender unit
DALLAS — ____ ____ maintained a Facebook page presenting himself as a teenage girl. The convicted sex offender was caught with 100,000 child pornography images last year. He was recently sentenced to 13 years in federal prison. ____ ____ was arrested for failing to register as a sex offender until police could get enough evidence to charge him with raping a woman inside a Baylor University Medical Center parking garage. He’s still in jail. What do these two men have in common? They were captured through the efforts of the Sex Offender Apprehension Program,…
Read MoreLaw Creating Passport Mark for Sex Offenders Faces First Challenge
A new federal law requiring the State Department to mark the passports of certain convicted sex offenders is expected to face its first test in federal court on Wednesday. A group of convicted sex offenders has asked a federal judge in Oakland, Calif., to block the measure pending the outcome of a February lawsuit they filed that challenges the law’s constitutionality. The law, International Megan’s Law to Prevent Demand for Child Sex Trafficking, mandates the State Department to add a “unique identifier” to passports of Americans convicted of sex crimes…
Read MoreCloser look: Finding statistics to fit a narrative
Licensed Professional Counselor Robert Longo has been vocally opposed to public registries for convicted sexual offenders for years. “I actually met with a group of people in New Jersey and sat across from Megan Kanka’s grandfather,” Longo said. The 1994 murder of 7-year-old Kanka gave rise to the public disclosure of sexual offender registries through what are commonly known as Megan’s laws. “I told the grandfather of the young girl, Megan Kanka, who was raped and murdered, that I appreciate what happened to his granddaughter but this law is not…
Read MorePROFS SAY FEDS’ SEX-ASSAULT POLICY RAPES CONSTITUTION
An association of professors is charging that the Washington bureaucracy is giving universities a choice: Follow the U.S. Constitution or keep the federal subsidies coming onto campuses. The report from the American Association of University Professors warned that the federal government’s expanding definitions of sexual harassment under Title IX, the Department of Education’s statute barring discrimination on the basis of gender, threaten free speech. Full Article
Read MoreEx-felons are winning back their voting rights
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Baltimore community organizer ____ ____, 55, is looking forward to stepping into a voting booth for the first time in his life this election season. ____ lost his never-exercised right to vote when he was convicted for drug and other offenses. He gained it back last month when Maryland joined a growing list of U.S. states making it easier for ex-convicts to vote. “To have the right to vote now is empowering. I’m stoked,” said ____, who spent a total of 19 years in prison for non-violent…
Read MoreFamily members of offenders speak out against sex offender registries
Vicki Henry never expected to wake up to more than a dozen armed officers at her front door to search her home, but that is what happened after her son, who had been charged and convicted of possession and distribution of child pornography while he was serving in Iraq, moved into her home. Full Article Related Women Against Registry
Read MoreNH: State senators to kill audit of sex offender treatment program
A State Senate committee voted last week to kill a vital bill calling for an in-depth performance audit of the sex offender treatment program in the men’s prisons. The issue in House Bill 1113 matters to every citizen. The sex offender treatment program has been understaffed for years. It still is. The full Senate votes March 31 on the bill, so readers should act fast. Full Article
Read MoreCalls for limiting sex-offender registry will be tough to act on
SACRAMENTO — The board that oversees the state’s sex-offender laws has a seemingly unconventional public safety pitch: Californians would be safer if the sex-offender registry were pared down. The California Sex Offender Management Board wants to eliminate lifetime registration requirements for some sex offenders. It’s proposing that lower-risk sex offenders be removed from the registry 10 to 20 years after their crimes to make the list more relevant and focused on higher-risk offenders. That way, law enforcement and the public can better differentiate between offenders who pose the greatest risks…
Read MorePA: When facts aren’t facts – A look at the effectiveness of sexual offender registries
The passages of sexual offender registries have grabbed headlines as steps toward public safety against unchanging “predators” who are being released back into society. The registry laws themselves have cost billions of dollars and generally are passed with overwhelming support. But do they work? Full Article
Read MoreMI: Prosecutor known for fighting prostitution charged with paying for sex hundreds of times
When it came to hiring prostitutes for sex, police say, Stuart Dunnings III preferred escort websites such as Escort Vault and Backpage.com. Most of the time, police say, Dunnings would meet the women at motels. Occasionally, they’d meet at a pimp’s house. His was a ferocious habit, one that led the 63-year-old to shell out hundreds of dollars three or four times a week for a revolving cast of heroin-addled sex workers. By the time he was arrested Monday outside a Lansing, Mich., coffee shop, Dunnings had racked up hundreds of illegal…
Read MoreCommittees to Hear Residency Restrictions Bill and Internet Bill on April 19 [updated]
Added 4/9: Also on April 19 the Assembly Public Safety Committee will consider Assembly Bill 2569 that would terminate certain offender’s exclusion from the public Megan’s Law web site. The hearing will begin at 9 a.m. (#13 on agenda) in the State Capitol, Room 126. The Senate Public Safety Committee will consider Senate Bill 1021, a bill that would allow cities to adopt and enforce residency restrictions, on April 19. The hearing will begin at 9:30 a.m. (#8 on agenda) in Room 4203 of the State Capitol Building. “Senator Sharon Runner has introduced…
Read MoreSex offender registry helps keep us safe (OpEd)
Raising kids is more than just feeding and housing them. Editorials we’ve written are filled with examples of where we, as a society, have failed. Whether we are talking about how Erin Andrews was treated, sexual assault in our society, treating each other with respect or the sex offender registry, we believe all of these are tied together in the quest to raise good citizens. We also believe the sex offender registry helps keep our kids – and community – safe. Full Opinion Piece Related With sex offender issues, many…
Read MoreTX: Mentally ill offender to stay in treatment program officials say he cannot understand
At the state’s home for sex predators, the Billy Clayton Center, the word “detention” has been removed from the facility sign. – The Texas Civil Commitment Office will create a special mental health treatment program for one man at a West Texas lockup after losing a fight with the state health department over which agency should house and treat a felon it says is too ill to benefit from – or even understand – the sex offender treatment he has been ordered to undergo. Full Article
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