During a hearing today, the Senate Public Safety Committee stopped two bills, SB 976 and SB 1143, that would have harmed registrants as well as their families. The first of those bills (SB 976) would have expanded the definition of “violent felony” to include all felony sex offenses. That change could have resulted in longer prison sentences as well as no consideration for early parole. The second of those bills (SB 1143) would have required registrants convicted of an offense involving a minor to disclose their status as a registrant to potential landlords as well as to home sellers.
“These are significant victories for registrants and their families,” stated ASCOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “The residency restrictions included in SB 1143 would have destroyed families and forced many registrants to become homeless.”
During the Committee’s consideration of SB 1143, a total of 21 people spoke in opposition to the bill including ACLU lobbyist Natasha Minsker and Executive Director Bellucci. The ACLU’s testimony focused upon a decision by the California Supreme Court, In re Taylor, which determined that residency restrictions, as applied by CDCR, violated the U.S. Constitution. ACSOL’s testimony focused upon reports and recommendations from the California Sex Offender Management Board, the U.S. Department of Justice and Dr. Jill Levinson which determined that residency restrictions decrease, rather than increase, public safety.
“We thank the registrants and family members who showed up, stood and spoke up during today’s hearing,” stated Bellucci. “They helped the members of the Senate Public Safety Committee reach the right decision by stopping two potentially harmful bills.”
Registrants and family members are invited to attend the next legislative hearing on May 9 during which Assembly Bill 2839 will be considered. If passed, that bill would prohibit hundreds of patients at Coalinga State Hospital from voting in federal, state and city elections. The hearing will begin at 9 a.m. in Room 444 of the State Capitol.
yeah a victory
Thank you to all who attended! And thank you to Janice for all you do! I don’t live in the state, but so glad to see common sense prevail in any way!
WOW!!
Thank you Janice and everyone else for your continued work and support in all these matters. This was a great victory for all (registrants and not registrants alike, despite someone people working against their own actual interests).
Great job in making people finally realize what common sense means. Thank you Janice and whoever helped to accomplish this….again!!!!
As usual, great work Janice and Team!
Can someone propose a law, that ONLY approved entities can propose laws dealing with this issue? You gotta think they are getting sick of the constant onslaught of creative BS disguised as “tough on crime look at me vote for me” legislation.
That’s great!
I was so happy I felt like I was floating out of the Committee meeting today.
See, when we speak up politicians DO listen, especially when it is done in the proper way and time! it was awesome to see NO ONE come to the mic to support this bill, then over TWENTY of us came to the mic to say “My name is ____ from [city]. I strongly oppose this bill”. That’s it! Easy! (Janice does that at each hearing).
Just as we appreciate people who support us registrants by doing things like writing letters, we would love to have YOU fellow CA registrants and supporters join us next time, on May 9 to fight AB 2839, which takes away their local voting rights of civilly committed SVP sex offenders (the most hated group of sex offenders in our society) in order to dilute their political rights:
https://all4consolaws.org/2018/03/ca-may-9-hearing-scheduled-for-bill-that-would-disenfranchise-svps/
We can’t do it alone! Please make the sacrifice to come, even if the bill won’t affect you directly. I did, because I know other bills in the future WILL affect me and I believe all of us should support ACSOL’s actions on .
We couldn’t do it without you Janice and your team. Every time you send an email out to oppose a bill I’m on it like blue bonnet. I was not able to attend today’s meeting, but I can write letters. Thank you for everything you do.
Lynn
Thank you Janice and everybody.
USA I stand corrected. I thought for sure the board was going to ignore facts and resort back to the same status quo but Janice and team are getting incredible good at this and apparently used the exactly right arguments and the use of Re Taylor and the other awesome reports….Million thanks to all especially Janice and team and also to all those who showed up, stood up, and spoke up. I will never bash those efforts again I can tell you that. I am truly humbled as what she did will not only affect me but the tens of thousands of others similarly situated….
All I can say is that having Janice be there for all of us, and represent us registered citizens, absolutely helps me sleep better at night!
I am ALWAYS thankful that we have her, Once again Janice, Thanks for all your help🙂
CA
Also to all of the people going to support Janice against these hate-mongers, thank you too!!!
Such great news. Thank you Janice and all who were there!
We are a team!!! Thank you Janice and everyone else.
Comments are nice….but donations are nicer. Just donated 50 bucks. Thanks Janice.
You all probably saved some lives as well as families. Thank you, all.
Andrew Vidak the sponsor of this stupid bill SB1143 should be ashamed of using xenophobia to gain votes for his re-election. Anyone constituent in Central California Senate 14th District should not vote for this imbecile.
REF: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Vidak
Thanks ACSOL, you save many from being homeless.
Thank you Janice and all the people that made this happened…And let’s not forget God, who is the one that opens doors to Janice and others that work beside her and gives them the wisdom, tact, and grace to deal with the politicians. Thank you God!!! keep blessing Janice Bellucci and her team with all those legal battles she will encounter in the future in Jesus’ name Amen! 🙂
thank you to Janice and team and everyone who fought for our rights and civil liberties. you are all so special and we love you. I could not have made it but I did send letters in.
Very grateful to Janice and the team for this awesome victory!
Thank you Janice and team for this and the literally thousands of things that you have done to give citizens a chance at a normal life. Every single time these inane and hateful notions are staged by mob-rule, vote hungry, hate mongering demagogues disguised as public servants, you are t the ready, upholding real american values.
there probably already are several boilerplate letters to the public safety committee to address these attempts at disenfranchisement disguised as laws. what i would like to see is a form letter that can be sent to these constitutional midgets that would remind them how idiotic and futile they are for bringing such hateful ideas into a bill. that would probably do more harm in the long run as it would fuel their hatred even more but what a dream to have one of these idiots get raked over the coals for simply being hateful and ignorant, a very dangerous combination..
i guess i’m just venting but thanks again for every single thing you do.