[star-telegram.com – 5/31/18] Russell Goodwin and Jeremy Thomas think of themselves as the Pedophile Patrol. One local news station called them video vigilantes. The two Oklahoma City dads have gained a modest Facebook following for their page, where they post videos of themselves confronting men they say are pedophiles. They call themselves “Oklahoma Pedophile Prevention. They make their claims through similar tactics to those used by the show which ran on NBC from 2004 to 2007. They pose as teens and exchange either texts or social media messages with men…
Read MoreYear: 2018
OK: The “Justice for Danyelle Act of 2018”: The Shady Tactics behind another Oklahoma Knee Jerk Law
[sosen.org – 5/31/18] Oklahoma’s “Justice for Danyelle Act of 2018,” an act that prohibits registrants from living within 2,000 feet of their victim’s home and loitering within 1,000 feet of the same, is a prime example of a knee jerk law. This law also demonstrated one of the deceptive tactics that Oklahoma lawmakers use in order to advance their own personal agenda using the public safety issue. To add insult to injury this law is going to be applied unconstitutionally to over 6,800 registrants in Oklahoma and the author of…
Read MoreAmerica’s Shadow Criminal Justice System
[newrepublic.com – 5/30/18] How the “supervised release” program pulls tens of thousands of former inmates back into prison without a fair trial By Jacob Schuman In the federal criminal justice system, prison is just the beginning of punishment. After prison comes “supervised release,” a set of obligations and restrictions governing an ex-con’s day-to-day schedule, employment, residence, and relationships. In the best-case scenario, two-thirds of people successfully complete their term of supervised release. Shon Hopwood is an extraordinary example—while serving a decade in prison and three years of supervised release, he…
Read MoreIndia: Kerala readies bill on sex offenders’ database
[timesofindia.indiatimes.com – 6/1/18] THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state home department is ready with a draft bill that would allow the preparation of a sex offenders’ database that can be accessed by the public and the various enforcement agencies. The draft bill titled ‘The Kerala Sex Offender Registration Bill, 2018’, accessed by TOI, aims to prepare an electronic database which will collate and retain all the necessary information about sex offenders. The access for the public, however, will be conditional with necessary penal clauses against misuse of the registry. There are also provisions…
Read MoreChallenging the Punitiveness of ‘New-Generation’ SORN Laws (Paper)
Sex offender registration and notification (SORN) laws have been in effect nationwide since the 1990s, and publicly available registries today contain information on hundreds of thousands of individuals. To date, most courts, including the Supreme Court in 2003, have concluded that the laws are regulatory, not punitive, in nature, allowing them to be applied retroactively consistent with the Ex Post Facto Clause. Recently, however, several state supreme courts, as well as the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, addressing challenges lodged against new-generation SORN laws of a considerably more onerous and…
Read MoreCA: Superior Court Judges Limits Residency Restrictions to Parolees
A California Superior Court judge has ruled that residency restrictions may only be applied to registrants while they are on parole. This ruling, issued in Norwalk Superior Court yesterday, is consistent with a ruling made by a federal judge in late 2017. “These court decisions are important because they clarify that cities may not impose residency restrictions against registrants who are not on parole,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “In addition to limiting the application of residency restrictions to parolees, we are also claiming that the restrictions violate the…
Read MoreGeneral Comments June 2018
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of June 2018. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
Read MoreNM: State tells convicted sex offender who she can date
Did you ever think that the State of New Mexico could tell someone who they could or could not date? That’s exactly what happened to a convicted sex offender last year, who was caught breaking the rules while on probation. Full Article
Read MoreNY: Sex Offender With Secret Facebook Wins Appeal
A New York appeals court dismissed the indictment Thursday of a one-legged sex offender who did not register his Facebook account with the state. Full Article Decision
Read MoreCA: California Program to Help Homeless Vets Excludes Sex Offenders
[floridaactioncommittee.org – 3/31/18] It sounds like a great program. Homeless military veterans who have been sleeping in their cars and risking arrest for violating a new law making it illegal to sleep in your vehicle in a residential area overnight, can now park their vehicles in the VA parking lot and get a good night’s sleep and access to bathrooms. According to California Radio Station WMOT, “Last month, a non-profit group called Safe Parking L.A. partnered with the Department of Veterans Affairs to offer 10 parking stalls for vets to…
Read MoreFL: Duval County rolls out drivers license restoration program
[floridapolitics.com – 5/30/18] Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams and State Attorney Melissa Nelson on Wednesday rolled out the ‘KEYS 2 Drive’ (Knowledge Empowers Your Success) diversion program. The program will help those facing primary charges of driving without valid licenses, or suspended or revoked licenses, to get valid drivers’ licenses. … Sex offenders are ineligible for the program, … Read the whole article
Read MoreAR: Here’s a helping hand – Right into a prison cell—or worse
[arkansasonline.com – 5/30/18] There are so many lessons to be drawn from Bobbie Gross’ tragic experience in trying to help her 17-year-old son that the challenge isn’t to describe just one but how to sum up the whole plethora of ills the young man fell into when left to the not-so-tender mercies of the State of Arkansas: It turns out that his mother, seeking to help him, made her first mistake when she filed a petition with a judge of Arkansas’ juvenile court system asking the court get her son…
Read MoreNJ Supreme Court Bars Retroactive Application of Megan’s Law Amendments
[law.com – 5/30/18] The New Jersey Supreme Court on Wednesday held 2014 amendments to Megan’s Law enhancing certain penalties for sex offenders who violate parole requirements unenforceable against four defendants based on the ex post facto clauses of both the state and federal constitutions. Read more Related: NJ Supreme Court finds Ex Post Facto violations as applied to 4 sex offenders [floridaactioncommittee.org – 5/31/18]
Read MoreFL: A decree bars police from harassing homeless people. Miami has moved to terminate it
[miamiherald.com – 5/30/18] Miami has asked a federal judge to terminate a 20-year-old legal agreement that protects the city’s homeless from undue police harassment — a change that would allow the police to arrest the homeless for loitering. The city on Wednesday filed a motion in U.S. District Court to terminate the Pottinger agreement, a 1998 consent decree that prevents police from arresting homeless people for “life-sustaining” activities such as sleeping on the sidewalk, starting a cooking fire or urinating in public. The agreement stems from a landmark lawsuit brought…
Read MoreSex Offender Ponzi Scheme
[dsdaughtry.wordpress.com – 5/28/18] Ponzi schemes are investment strategies where individuals help facilitate other like-minded individuals by purchasing or acquiring an idea or product with the hopes of an economic safety and security outcomes. These elaborate schemes take time to manifest and mature. Those that refuse or suspicious are usually labeled as missing an opportunity of a lifetime or misanthropic. Once the moment of collapse of Ponzi schemes unravels then does the distrust of those that invested harming families, security, public trust, and overall accountability. The most massive Ponzi scheme that…
Read MoreThe Dating Debacle for Registrants
[blog.womenagainstregistry.org – 5/30/18] Who do you tell, what do you say and when do you say it? That’s just one of the many dilemmas facing single registrants trying to reintegrate back into the dating world. Getting out there an socializing is risky business and it’s filled with many possible pitfalls. But this is what you are supposed to do isn’t it? Isn’t this what those prison lectures on “reintegration” were all about. How you’re supposed to get out there and resume your life, build a support network of friends and…
Read MoreMO: Senate Bill 655 changes the way MO handles sex offender registry [three tier]
[fourstateshomepage.com = 5/29/18] State lawmakers sign off on a potential law changing the way the Show Me State handles its sex offender registry. Senate Bill 655 would create a three tier system, similar to the one used at the federal level. Those guilty of the least serious convictions could ask courts to take them off the list after ten years. That option is also available for convicts on the second tier -with more serious charges – after 25 years on the registry. But those with the worst offenses would remain…
Read MoreCA: The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation wants to rid some facilities of sensitive needs yards
[sacbee.com – 5/27/18] The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is changing how inmates are housed, saying current separations between general population inmates and those held in sensitive needs yards have been ineffective in eliminating gangs and violence within prison walls. The agency will instead move toward creating some “non-designated program” facilities, where both groups will be tasked with co-existing. The current system has bred new gangs within the sensitive needs yards, resulting in escalating violence, CDCR Undersecretary of Operations Ralph Diaz said. “We are going to do behavior-based programs…
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