[floridaactioncommittee.org 5/7/18] MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Residents of a homeless sex offender camp near Hialeah who have been ordered to leave have been given an extension. Originally, they were supposed to be gone from their roadside refuge near NW 36th Avenue and 71st Street by sunrise Monday. Now they have until Thursday, May 10th, to pack up and go. Monday morning, Miami-Dade police showed up the area but said they were not there for enforcement. Read more Related links: Officials give final notice to homeless sex offenders living in encampment [local10.com…
Read MoreYear: 2018
FL: Walls closing in on Miami-Dade homeless sex offender issue
[floridaactioncommittee.org 5/7/19] I guess someone didn’t let Ron Book’s “Homeless Trust” know about the reprieve, because according to Local10 news, “workers from Miami-Dade’s Homeless Trust arrived Sunday night with police to give the offenders their eighth and final warning.” In fact, the Deputy Mayor had given assurance to Attorney Jeffrey Hearne from Legal Services of Greater Miami, who had prepared to file an immediate legal challenge to the (now 4th) forced eviction of sex offenders, that enforcement action would not begin until AFTER the 10th, which gives the County some…
Read MoreMO: ‘Extremely complex’ sex offender residency restrictions are challenging to enforce
In an effort to keep Missouri children safe, lawmakers have enacted half a dozen laws over the past decade that restrict the rights of convicted sex offenders living among us. Full Article
Read MoreME: Sex offender’s art removed from Lewiston exhibit
[UPDATE LINKS 5/7/18] The University of Southern Maine has removed three works by a highly regarded oil painter from a gallery on its Lewiston-Auburn campus after learning that the artist is a sex offender, a decision that has prompted objections from the show’s curator and the Union of Maine Visual Artists. Full Article Related Articles Sex offender’s artwork pulled from USM show at Lewiston-Auburn gallery Arts pieces by Pelican Bay inmates on display at courthouse [triplicate.com 4/25/17 – non-sex-offender art displayed] So we can’t have out art exhibits shown…
Read MoreSex Crimes and Criminal Justice
[washingtonspectator.org 5/4/18] Formerly incarcerated sex offenders say civil commitment programs deny proper rehabilitation May 4, 2018 By Barbara Koeppel Responding to several highly publicized sex crimes and public fears, legislatures across the country have adopted statutes that allow the continued imprisonment of sex offenders after they have completed their sentences. Veteran investigative reporter Barbara Koeppel has spent the past 12 months reporting on this third rail of the criminal justice system. Here are her findings. Since the 1990s, 20 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws that direct…
Read MoreBOP backs down on the restrictive book policy
[handbasketnotes.blogspot.com 5/5/18] Good news. The federal Bureau of Prisons has rescinded the policy changes that would have made it more expensive and more difficult for inmates to receive books. Ann E. Marimow at the Washington Post reports: The restrictions were already in place in facilities in Virginia and California and were set to start this month at a prison in Florida. Under the rules, inmates in at least four facilities were required to order books only through a prison-approved vendor and, at three of the prisons, to pay an extra…
Read MoreNV: Sex offender registry changes will impact Lyon County numbers
[rgj.com 5/4/18] The number of Lyon County sex offenders registered on the Department of Public Safety’s website will increase with the implementation of a new statewide sex offender registration law. Nevada Legislature in 2007 approved AB579 to comply with the federal Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act passed the year before. The law changes how sex offenders are classified and who must register with the DPS. The bill has been hung up in legislation for more than 10 years, but on April 27 the Nevada Supreme Court lifted the…
Read MoreA Rational Approach to the Role of Publicity and Condemnation in the Sentencing of Offenders
[ssrn.com 5/2/18] Florida State University Law Review, Vol. 46, 2019 38 Pages Posted: 2 May 2018 Mirko Bagaric Director of the Evidence-Based Sentencing and Criminal Justice Project, Swinburne University Law School Peter Isham Northwestern University, School of Law, Students Date Written: April 14, 2018 Abstract The punishment imposed on criminal offenders by courts often does not exhaust the hardship they experience. There are a number of collateral forms of punishment that many offenders are subjected to as a result of their offending. Some of these deprivations are institutional, such as…
Read MoreOffenderWatch, the Largest Sex Offender Registry Network in the U.S., Awarded Contract with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
[watchsystems.com 5/4/18] COVINGTON, La.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–OffenderWatch, the leading public safety sex offender registry network in the United States, is pleased to announce that it will be working with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to modernize the Canadian National Sex Offender Registry. This marks the first time that OffenderWatch, headquartered in Covington, La., has worked with a law enforcement agency outside of the U.S. OffenderWatch was awarded the contract to modernize the RCMP’s National Sex Offender Registry, following a Government of Canada procurement process. The contract between the RCMP and OffenderWatch…
Read MoreCT: Keep statute of limitations; and another ‘liberal activist’
[journalinquirer.com 5/4/18] Arguing recently for the repeal of Connecticut’s statute of limitations for sex offenses, Laura Cordes, executive director of the Connecticut Alliance to End Sexual Violence, declared, “Justice should not have an expiration date.” But justice often does have an expiration date, and not because of statutes of limitations but rather because as time passes evidence inevitably is lost, memories fade, and witnesses die or disappear, making it impossible to mount a complete and effective prosecution or defense. Connecticut’s current statute of limitations for sex offenses is five years,…
Read MoreSC: Sheriff’s office assistant stole money from sex offenders, SLED says
[wyff4.com 5/4/18] KERSHAW COUNTY, S.C. (WIS contributed to this article) — A 34-year-old woman is accused of stealing money collected from registered sex offenders while she was assistant to a South Carolina sheriff, according to an arrest warrant. The State Law Enforcement Division arrested Samantha West Connell, of Kershaw County, on a charge of embezzlement of public funds, value less than $10,000. Advertisement SLED agents said the thefts were committed between January 2015 and April 2016, while Connell was employed as an administrative assistant at the Kershaw County Sheriff’s Office.…
Read MoreFL: Man accused of trying to kill sex offenders in Kissimmee
[UPDATED LINKS 5/7/18] [wesh.com 5/4/18] OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — Police said a man was locked up after he was accused of trying to kill sex offenders. Officers said he tried to set the men on fire. Jorge Porto-Sierra has been formally charged with four counts of attempted premeditated murder. Osceola County detectives said the 50-year-old confessed to deputies he tried to kill multiple people at the Friendly Village Inn on Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway. After his March 7 arrest, Porto-Sierra said he arrived at the motel to “barbecue all the…
Read MoreGeneral Comments May 2018
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of May 2018. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
Read MoreCA: New CDCR Regulations Deny Prop. 57 Benefits to Registrants
[ACSOL 5/4/18] The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has issued new regulations that continue to deny the benefits of Proposition 57 to registrants. The new regulations are dated May 1, but were not publicly available until today. “The new CDCR regulations are inconsistent with a court order issued earlier this year,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “The court in that case clearly ruled that CDCR cannot exclude all registrants from the benefits of Proposition 57.” In its newly issued regulations, CDCR specifically prohibits “inmates convicted of a…
Read MoreFL: Under threat of lawsuit, Miami-Dade grants reprieve to eviction of sex offenders
[floridaactioncommittee.org 5/4/18] Facing an imminent lawsuit to be brought by Legal Services of Greater Miami on behalf of the homeless sex offenders living alongside railroad tracks in Miami-Dade, the Deputy Mayor has granted a temporary reprieve to the forced eviction scheduled for Sunday, May 6, 2018. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, had sent a memo on March 21st, announcing plans to shut down the encampment of sex offenders living outdoors, legislated into homelessness by the County’s 2500 foot exclusion zone. Included in that plan was a deadline of May 6th for…
Read MoreVA: Registered sex offender sues Stafford School Board for banning him from meetings
[fredericksburg.com 5/4/18] A Stafford County resident is suing the county’s School Board over a no-trespassing notice that effectively prohibits him from attending the board’s meetings because he is a registered sex offender. Melvin Allen filed a federal lawsuit this month claiming that the action violates his constitutional right to participate in public meetings. He is seeking unspecified damages. Allen received the notice barring him from “School Board-owned property” on May 3, 2016, presumably because he picked up his grandson from Winding Creek Elementary School the previous month, according to the…
Read MoreCA: San Diego DA Candidate Summer Stephan’s Bad Day
[sandiegofreepress.org 5/3/18] Wednesday, May 2, wasn’t a good day in appointed interim District Attorney Summer Stephan’s quest to win her first election in the June Primary. In Justice Today, a leading publication in the field of criminal justice reform called out Stephan’s claims about human trafficking, suggesting she’s used inflated numbers to bolster her political and professional profile. And Genevieve Jones-Wright, Stephan’s opponent in the upcoming June primary, has asked the State Attorney General’s office to investigate ten alleged violations of state law prohibiting employees–in this case, local law enforcement–from…
Read MoreCA: Wilk sex offender bill passes Senate with unanimous vote [Senate Bill 1199]
[signalscv.com 5/3/18] A bill that State Sen. Scott Wilk, R-Antelope Valley, introduced to reform the release and placement for California sex offenders unanimously passed the Senate on Thursday. Senate Bill 1199 would expand current protections against the ‘dumping’ of sexually violent predators into random communities. Now it would include, when reasonably possible, requiring authorities to take familial and community ties into consideration when determining where inmates convicted of registerable sex offenses are placed upon release. Read more
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