If an individual is convicted of a sex offense, he or she is required to follow a number of rules, including registering as a sex offender, serving time in prison or on probation, and undergoing psychological treatment. Full Article
Read MoreMonth: January 2018
IML Lawsuit Filed
A lawsuit was filed today in the Central District of the U.S. District Court of California challenging regulations issued by the State Department that announced the addition of a “unique identifier” to the passports of some registrants. Addition of the identifier to passports could affect more than 500,000 Americans and their families. “The State Department violated the requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) when it failed to provide the public with an opportunity to comment upon its regulations,” stated ACSOL Executive Director and attorney Janice Bellucci. “As a result…
Read MoreWI: Did a Newspaper Inspire a Murder Attempt?
[lifeonlist.org] Last July, the Hudson Star Observer in western Wisconsin wrote a story about a man moving into a building in town. His name was Brandon Langel. He was on the state’s sex offender registry for crimes he’d committed in 2008, for which he spent four years in prison. The paper ran the story because now he’d be moving into a building where three other registrants also lived. The paper interviewed a neighbor who lived right across the street. “It’s really concerning,” said Daniel Steltz, who had a wife and…
Read MoreACSOL Emotional Support Group Meeting in L.A. on Jan 13
ACSOL will conduct an Emotional Support Group for registrants and their loved ones on Saturday, January 13, beginning at 10 a.m. at: ACLU Building 1313 W. 8th Street Los Angeles Free parking is available under the building and there is no charge to attend the meeting. The meeting, which is based upon 12 Step principles, will provide registrants and their loved ones with an opportunity to discuss personal challenges. We look forward to seeing you there!
Read MoreCall-in meeting regarding IML on Jan 30 [Updated with Call Audio]
Please join ACSOL for a call-in meeting regarding International Megan’s Law (IML), including the recent lawsuit filed challenging the State Department’s regulations regarding passport identifiers. The conference call will be on Tuesday, January 30 at 5 p.m. Pacific Time (8:00 Eastern). Please Show up, Stand up, and Speak up! Dial-in number: 1-712-770-8055 Conference Code: 983459 This will be recorded and available on our website www.all4consolaws.org This recording – All Recordings
Read MoreCA: Root and Rebound’s Feb 24 Berkeley CA Family Law Clinic for people with records
Root & Rebound will be hosting its second Family Law Clinic for people with records. Root & Rebound will be offering one-on-one appointments with their reentry attorneys for any person with a criminal record who needs help with issues related to family law. Date: February 24th, 2018 Time: 10 am – 4 pm Location: 1730 Franklin St., Suite 300, Oakland, CA 94612 At this clinic, get help with family law issues like: Understanding your rights in family court, probate court, or dependency court as a person with a criminal record.…
Read MoreThe Concern for the Damage the Registry does to Young Offenders [opinion]
[sosen.org] Recently there has been major concern over youth being placed on the sex offender registry and a number of articles, not to mention some legislative attempts at change (such as Nebraska legislative bill 689), have been put forth to remove young people from the registry. The reason for this move is pointed out in articles such as ( http://jjie.org/2018/01/08/young-sex-offenders-shouldnt-have-to-register-its-ineffective-and-hurts-everyone-around-them/ ). The problem with articles such as these is they do not take into account the even more innocent victims of the sex offender registry, the children and families of…
Read MorePA courts put Megan’s Law in limbo
[altoonamirror.com] HOLLIDAYSBURG — Following the sentencing of an area man last month for indecent assault, Blair County District Attorney Richard A. Consiglio informed the judge that the next step in the process — a hearing to determine if the defendant was required to register as a sex offender — had to be delayed because of recent opinions by the Pennsylvania Supreme and Superior courts. Under those opinions, questions arose as to the constitutionality of the state law requiring sexual offenders to register with state police and to periodically update their…
Read MoreCA: Was homicide victim attacked because of his alleged history as sex offender?
A Los Angeles man who was stabbed more than 50 times and whose body was dumped near Rosamond may have been targeted in the belief that he was a sex offender, according to a search warrant. The slaying of ____ ____ may be connected to comments found on his Facebook page alleging that the 32-year-old was a child molester, Kern County sheriff’s Detective Daniel Perez wrote in the warrant. In the years he’s worked in law enforcement, the detective wrote, he is aware that convicted or accused sex offenders are…
Read MoreCA: L.A. child molester to be released after spending 17 years in state hospital awaiting trial
Just before ____ ____ was scheduled to get out of prison, Los Angeles County prosecutors made a plea to the court: Don’t let him free — he’s too dangerous to live in public. While in his early 20s, ____ had lured young boys who lived in his South L.A. neighborhood to a spot near an alleyway with the promise of candy. He was convicted of molesting several children, ages 6 to 8, court records show. Prosecutors argued that ____ needed to be confined within the walls of a state hospital,…
Read MoreWA: The Island Where Washington State Sends Its Sex Offenders (video)
[VICE News channel on YouTube.com] Twenty minutes off the Puget Sound coast is an island that was the home to a state penitentiary until it closed in 2011. Now, it is used as a facility for the civil commitment of the state’s most violent sex offenders. Watch video
Read MoreNY: Justice Department probes state’s civil confinement of sex offenders
The U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division is examining New York’s controversial system of civil confinement for sex offenders. The probe was revealed when an attorney with the Justice Department’s special litigation office recently interviewed a sex offender confined at the Central New York Psychiatric Center in Oneida County. Under New York’s decade-old Sex Offender Management and Treatment Act, convicted sex offenders can be kept in secure psychiatric hospitals indefinitely after their prison terms expire. If an offender is found to have a mental abnormality that makes the person…
Read MoreYoung Sex Offenders Shouldn’t Have to Register; It’s Ineffective and Hurts Everyone Around Them
Sex offender registration policies were initially developed for adults with sexual offenses, but have recently been extended to include youth with sexual offenses as well. At first glance, sex offender registration and notification (hereafter referred to as SORN) may make us feel safer, produce relief knowing that these individuals are being punished. Full Article
Read MoreRI: Letter: Leo Carroll: Base sex offender laws on facts rather than myths [opinion]
[providencejournal.com] Two decades of research regarding the effects of sex offender laws have produced no evidence that such laws achieve their stated purposes. A recent review of research on community notification and residency restriction laws in the Oxford Handbook of Sex Offences and Sex Offenders concludes that such legislation is “misinformed and simply incorrect.” These laws are knee-jerk reactions to hysteria fueled by media narratives of sensational but exceptional tragedies; they are based on myths rather than facts. The first myth is that sex offenders are strangers, when in fact…
Read MoreAs we move into 2018, are we still in a room without a view? [opinion]
[sajrt.blogspot.com] By Kieran McCartan, PhD, David Prescott, LICSW, & Alissa Ackerman, PhD. The start of a new year is often a time of reflection and hope. We think about our experiences as well as practice over the last year and learn from poor practice as well as build upon good, existing practices. Having a solid, reliable, evidence base is central to all aspects of life, personal and professional! Thinking back over the last 12 months, 2017 has been an interesting year to say the least with the common factor being…
Read MoreRI: Crossroads will continue to shelter homeless sex offenders as lawsuit plays out
[providencejournal.com] PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Crossroads Rhode Island will continue to take in sex offenders at a homeless shelter in Cranston under an agreement between the parties to a lawsuit challenging a new state law that limits the number of convicted sex offenders who can be housed in homeless shelters. The parties met in chambers Wednesday afternoon with U.S. District Court Chief Judge William E. Smith. According to Lynette Labinger, a lawyer for the state affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the lawsuit, Judge Smith recognized that there…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: To Jail and Then to Hell
A town in Connecticut passed a new law this week that bans registrants from virtually all of its public sites, including parks, recreation centers, event centers, swimming pools, trails, and open space land. The new law also prohibits registrants from attending school events even if their children are participating in them. The town’s decision to ban registrants was made about the same time as their public schools prepared to participate in “The Great Kindness Challenge”, an international program meant to show that kindness matters. The irony of these two events…
Read MoreIt Could Be You Registered with Dignity
[sexlawandpolicy.org] Yesterday, SLAP Center was honored to speak on It Could Be You, with host John S., about our recently released reentry guide for registrants – Registering with Dignity (RWD). During the hour-long interview, we stressed that registration and incarceration isn’t a period. It doesn’t have to be a full stop and the end of your life. Use RWD as your semi colon; get your new clause on life. Understandably, life will be more difficult, and sometimes feel impossible, but your life is still waiting for you. Whether or not…
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