Parents Concerned Over Possible Registered Sex Offenders for Halloween

State officials are cracking down on registered sex offenders, just as Halloween is around the corner. It’s called “Operation Boo,” which requires that all registered sex offenders to adhere to certain curfews and restrictions between 5 p.m. and 5 a.m., starting on Halloween night. They also cannot put up Halloween decorations or give out candy to trick-or-treating children. Full Article Related https://all4consolaws.org/2016/09/cdcr-agrees-to-drop-halloween-sign-requirement/

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MI: Sex Offender Registration After Does v. Snyder

The Sixth Circuit’s recent decision in Does v. Snyder, __ F.3d __, 2016 WL 4473231 (6th Cir. 2016), has significant implications for the representation of current registrants who are charged with violating Michigan’s Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA), current registrants seeking removal from the sex offender registry or exemptions from certain SORA provisions, defendants currently charged with sex offenses, and defendants in “recapture” cases. While every case is obviously unique, this memo seeks to provide some general guidance to Michigan’s criminal defense bar in the wake of the Does decision.…

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“One strike for sex offenders should be enough” – change.org Petition

“The system failed me and my family and I’m going to do whatever it takes to put an end to the psychos running the streets.” – Shasta Groene For anyone living in the Pacific Northwest in May of 2005, the survival story of Shasta Groene is one you could not turn away from. It has now been almost 11 1/2 years since ____ ____ , a sex offender with a long record of assaults on children, abducted Shasta and her brother Dylan from their Idaho home where another brother, Slade,…

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State Department Replies to IML Petition

The State Department has modified the Final Rule it published on September 2, 2016, regarding implementation of the International Megan’s Law (IML).  The modification corrects the erroneous statement in the Rule regarding whose passports will bear a “unique identifier”. The modification clarifies that “unique identifiers” will be added only to the passports of individuals convicted of a sex offense that involved a minor and who are currently required to register as a sex offender. The State Department’s modification occurred as the result of a petition filed by the Alliance for Constitutional Sex…

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California judge imposes prison term of 1,503 years(!?!) on father who repeatedly raped daughter

As reported in this local article, a state judge in California gave new meaning to the term “mass incarceration” by imposing a prison sentence on a rapist that will not be completed until the year 3519. … In addition to the prison sentence, Sarkisian said Lopez will have to register as a sex offender. Full Article Related Rape, Incest And Retribution http://www.co.fresno.ca.us/uploadedFiles/Departments/District_Attorney/PDF/2016.10.21_Lopez%20News%20Release.pdf

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Sex offenders in nursing homes issue begs for answers

… Others responding to the investigation said it’s a complicated issue in need of more study. “The question is what do we do with these people,” said state Sen. Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering. “You obviously have people who are in need of nursing home care who happen to be sexual predators. And what is the alternative for them?” The investigation explored an idea other states have proposed but none have implemented — creating specialized nursing homes for those on the sex offender registry. Critics said that approach would isolate offenders from…

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ACSOL Conference Call October 26 – Halloween (with Recording)

ACSOL’s will hold a public conference call on Wednesday, October 26, at 4 p.m. Pacific time. The topic of the call will be “Halloween” and the call will follow the same format as the previous calls. There will be a brief presentation of the topic to be followed by a Q&A session where call attendees may ask questions pertaining to the topic. Dial-in number: 1-712-770-8055 Conference Code: 983459 I look forward to having you call in. Sincerely, Janice Recording Related ***Listen to the Call Recordings (when done)*** ***ACSOL Conference Call Discussions by date /…

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CA Sex Offender Management Board Releases New Statistics, Discusses Tiered Registry Bill

The California Sex Offender Management Board (CASOMB) released new statistics regarding registrants during its regularly scheduled monthly meeting on October 20. In addition, the board discussed a tiered registry bill expected to be introduced in the state legislature in early 2017. The total number of registrants is 104,369 according to CASOMB. Of that total, there are 16,294 in violation (about 16 percent) of registration laws. The total number of registrants who register as transients is 6,444 and of that total there are 1,575 (about 24 percent) in violation of registration…

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IL: Sex offender internet law constitutional

SPRINGFIELD — The state’s highest court has upheld a law that requires sex offenders to disclose information about their internet identities and websites. In a unanimous decision authored by Justice Charles E. Freeman, the Illinois Supreme Court held that a provision of the Sex Offender Registration Act survived First Amendment scrutiny because it bolsters the government’s interest in protecting the public without restricting more speech than necessary. In an 18-page opinion issued this morning, the court critiqued a handful of federal district courts who have found similar statutes unconstitutional and…

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Asperger’s, autism, and sex offenders

… Then he talked about his son’s diagnosis: Asperger’s Syndrome, a developmental disorder on the autism spectrum. As a young child, Nick flapped his arms and jumped a lot. At three, he barely spoke. As an adult, he still cannot tie his shoes, making it all the more impressive that he has achieved so much. Then the dad added one more item to his son’s resume: Nick is a convicted felon, a sex offender on the registry. He was found guilty of possession of child porn. Full Article

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LARGE RACIAL DISPARITIES IN SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY, PROFESSOR FINDS

A University at Albany assistant professor has begun looking into how sex offender registries reveal the inequalities of the criminal justice system. The findings of Trevor Hoppe, an assistant professor of sociology, have been published in his paper, “Punishing Sex: Sex Offenders and the Missing Punitive Turn in Sexuality Studies.” The study indicates that approximately 1 percent of African American males in the United States are registered sex offenders while white males are registered at approximately half that rate. Full Article

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Sex offender registries need reform

Twenty-five years ago, with activist Patty Wetterling by his side, Minnesota governor Arne Carlson signed America’s first law establishing a public registry system for sex offenders. The law, which Wetterling helped to write, aimed to give police a starting point for tracking down sexual predators like Danny Heinrich, the man who had kidnapped, molested and murdered Patty’s son, Jacob Wetterling. Full Article

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AUS: Dangerous offender laws the antithesis of free and democratic society

DETAINING people after they have served the sentence imposed on them by a court is unconscionable. Yet this practice, which has its origins in Nazi Germany, has become common across Australia, and the Turnbull Government’s plan to keep people convicted of terrorism offences locked up potentially until they die is the latest incarnation of this trend. Full Article

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LA: Too Poor for Freedom: Sex Offender Registry and the Fourteenth Amendment

If a school mandated uniforms and suspended a child too poor to afford them, there would be an uproar. Media would excoriate the school for denying the impoverished an education due to their financial circumstances. Many would wonder at the cost of a uniform relative to the school’s budget, suggesting that the school simply offer the child a simple uniform. As ever, our instinctive notions of justice and fair play seem to end at criminal court. In the state of Louisiana, a person required to register as a sex offender…

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AUS: One in four child sex offenders are revealed as children

A major increase in the number of children sexually attacking other kids has seen more than 3000 young people involved in sex crimes in NSW in the past five years. One in four child sex offenders are in fact children and 140 of the attacks that have occurred since 2011 were carried out by those aged under 11, NSW ­Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research reveal. Just last year, 28 young children were sexually assaulted by 31 kids who were younger than 11, the Daily Telegraph reports. Full Article

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The Myth and the Propaganda of Halloween and Registered Sex Offenders

3 weeks from today is Halloween 2016 and in about 2 weeks I’ll post my annual Do’s and Don’ts list for RSO’s in Virginia on Halloween. Over the years of advocating for data-driven laws and reform here I’ve learned the worst time of year for Myth-Based and Hysteria-Driven articles, policies and laws is Halloween. Halloween can be more emotionally draining than the annual Virginia General Assembly in Richmond. Full Article on It’s Time to Reduce, Reconstruct, Reclassify, Rethink and Reform the Virginia Sex Offender Registry

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