HEARING DATE: April 25 – Senate Public Safety Committee at 8:30 a.m. in Room 3191 (as of 4/8) Sen. Connie Leyva has amended again Senate Bill 26 (SB 26) which would affect whether and when registrants could visit school campuses. As amended, the bill would require registrant parents to be supervised by a school official when they visit a school campus. In addition, the bill would limit visits by registrants who are not parents to times when students are not present. “The bill, as amended, would harm children by effectively denying…
Read MoreMonth: April 2017
MO: Some say new Mo. law tracking sex offenders is unconstitutional
Keeping an eye on sex offenders for life, it’s a new law for Missouri and this now includes first-time offenders. But tonight, there’s a fight to challenge this. Some say it violates the constitution. Full Article
Read MorePA: Does isolating sex offenders really work? Some experts say no
The arguments from experts who contend that residency restrictions such as those sought by Dawn Knull don’t work focus on concerns that the restrictions isolate sex offenders and make it more difficult for them to be rehabilitated. “It is a bad idea from the perspective of public safety,” said Mary Catherine Roper, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, which brought the case on behalf of sex offenders that led to the court striking down the Allegheny County ordinance. Many experts have come out in recent…
Read MoreAZ: U.S. judge knocks down Arizona’s child-molestation law, orders ex-teacher released
A U.S. District Court judge in Phoenix has found unconstitutional an Arizona law defining child molestation, and he ordered that a man who already has spent a decade in custody be released. In 2007, a Maricopa County jury found ____ ____guilty of five counts of molestation of a child and acquitted him of two other counts. An eighth count was dismissed by prosecutors. ____ was a former schoolteacher and swim instructor, and the charges came from allegations that he touched children inappropriately while giving them swim lessons. ____denied there was any…
Read MoreInternet Exclusion Bill (AB 558) Hearing Scheduled on April 18
The internet exclusion bill, AB 558, is scheduled to be considered by the Assembly Public Safety Committee on April 18. The committee hearing will begin at 8:30 a.m. in Room 126 and include consideration of more than 30 pending bills. “This bill must be stopped,” stated ACSOL executive director Janice Bellucci. “If the bill becomes law, families will be harmed and victims will be re-victimized.” AB 558 was previously scheduled for a hearing on March 28, however, the bill was pulled from consideration by its author. The Assembly Public Safety…
Read MoreSen. Lara Pulls Tiered Registry Bill (SB 695)
Senator Ricardo Lara, the primary author of the Tiered Registry Bill (SB 695), has pulled that bill from further consideration. The bill had been scheduled to be heard by the Senate Public Safety Committee on April 18. The bill could continue if either co-author Holly Mitchell agrees to serve as the bill’s sole author or a new author is identified. In order to remain viable, the bill must be heard by the Senate Public Safety Committee during its hearing on April 25. Related California state Sen. Ricardo Lara announces he’s…
Read MoreGeneral Comments April 2017
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of April 2017. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
Read MoreUT: Audit slams Utah’s sex-offender treatment program in prison
Sex offenders in Utah often stay in prison months beyond their parole eligibility date because of a backlog of inmates awaiting treatment overseen by the Utah Department of Corrections, according to a state audit released Monday. Full Article
Read MoreGA: Sex offenders require constant vigilance from law enforcement
When ____ ____ set foot in South Georgia a few years ago, he had just spent 30 years in a Detroit prison for being a serial rapist convicted 10 times over. Because Palmer committed his crimes before June 4, 2003, under Georgia law, he is allowed to settle down anywhere with no restrictions. Yes, that’s right. Anywhere. He can settle in a home next door to a school or day care or playground — anywhere. “____ ____’s crime is so old (he) can live next to whatever he wants to.…
Read MoreNCMEC Hypocrisy on “Stranger Danger”
Yesterday, Callahan Walsh of NCMEC—The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children—appeared on Good Morning America to urge parents to stop using the phrase “stranger danger”—the phrase that NCMEC itself popularized for decades. They rightly noted—finally—that most child sexual exploitation is from someone known to the child, not a stranger. Full Article Related Group that Put Missing Kids’ Pictures on Milk Cartons NOW Says, “Don’t Teach Kids Stranger Danger” Experts warn against teaching the phrase ‘stranger danger’
Read MoreMN: Lawyers want high court to take Minnesota sex offenders case
Lawyers for sex offenders confined indefinitely to Minnesota’s secure treatment program have asked a judge to stay all further proceedings while they ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review an appeals court finding that the program is constitutional. Full Article
Read MoreAZ: Women working together to change sex offender notification process
Two North Valley women say they have their family lives and careers on hold, to fight for a safer community. Julie Read and Ann O’Brien, who live in the Norterra subdivision of the North Valley, started this mission after an old juvenile detention facility re-opened as the Maricopa Re-entry Center, a place where former inmates who were drug addicts and sex offenders would come for treatment. “It was literally 16 sex offenders came in one day, in addition to the dozens we already have living in our community,” said Read.…
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