[local12.com – 10/21/19] The Mt. Healthy Police Department is taking a proactive approach to keep trick-or-treaters safe on Halloween. Officers posted a list of addresses on the department’s Facebook page. They are all sex offenders who live in parts of the community. Brittany Athey looks forward to taking her kids out on Halloween, but was not aware that a registered sex offender lived on a street near her house. “I think it’s a great thing because we’ll be able to keep away from those houses then. So we know what…
Read MoreMonth: October 2019
JPMorgan Chase Hired 2,100 People With Criminal Records In 2018 (And Will Hire More)
[forbes.com – 10/21/19] Topline: JPMorgan Chase announced an expansion of its efforts to hire people with criminal backgrounds Monday, continuing the trend of big companies “banning the box” and giving people second chances. JPMorgan Chase hired 2,100 people with criminal records in 2018, which equals about 10% of their total hires last year. The bank knows those people have records, because they conduct background checks on applicants after a job offer has been made. Applicants with criminal records are being considered for entry-level jobs like account servicing and transaction processing,…
Read MoreAK: DOJ Grants $273 Mln For Public Safety Of American Indian And Alaska Natives
[rttnews.com – 10/21/19] The Department of Justice has granted $273.4 million to improve public safety, serve victims of crime, combat violence against women and support youth programs in American Indian and Alaska Native communities. … A portion of the funding will support tribal youth mentoring and intervention services, help native communities implement requirements of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, and provide training and technical assistance to tribal communities. … The Department provided $6.1 million to help tribes to comply with federal law on sex offender registration and notification.…
Read MoreMO: Halloween has local police strictly enforcing sex offender compliance
[fourstateshomepage.com – 10/21/19] Halloween is right around the corner, and local law enforcement are making sure the hundreds of sex offenders in Jasper County are following the law. The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office already keeps a close eye on registered sex offenders and Halloween is no different. They have already started to reach out to offenders to make sure their in compliance with the law, which includes ensuring they are on the sex offender registry and posting the proper signage on their home on Halloween. “Nowadays, you never know what…
Read MoreWA: Tarra Simmons Looks To Become 1st Former Inmate Elected To Washington Legislature
[opb.org – 10/21/19] A Washington attorney and criminal justice reform advocate who previously served time in prison is seeking to become the first formerly incarcerated person elected to the Washington Legislature, at least in modern times. Tarra Simmons, of Bremerton, who in 2017 won a Supreme Court fight to sit for the state bar exam, despite her prior criminal conviction, plans to formally announce her candidacy for the state House on Monday. “I’d like to break this concrete ceiling,” Simmons said in an exclusive interview with the public radio Northwest News Network. “I think…
Read MoreGA: Sex offenders sue Butts County Sheriff’s Office over ‘No Trick or Treat’ signs
When kids are out trick-or-treating, one of parents’ biggest worries is safety — but efforts by a Middle Georgia sheriff’s office to keep children safe are now at the center of a federal class action lawsuit. Full Article and Lawsuit Related GA: Palmer Sheriff Puts ‘No Trick-Or-Treat’ Signs in Yards of Sex Offenders
Read MoreFL: Florida Cops Went to Absurd Lengths to Entrap Man Who Showed No Interest in Underage Sex
[reason.com – 10/21/19] How do you catch a predator in Sarasota, Florida? You create one. The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) is going to “outrageous lengths” to make law-abiding lonely guys into sex offenders. That’s according to Noah Pransky, a fearless journalist who has been covering Florida’s addiction to entrapment for years. In September, SCSO arrested 23 men for allegedly soliciting underage girls for sex. Pransky’s most recent piece in Florida Politics chronicles the elaborate back and forth between one of those men and a police officer pretending to be a…
Read MoreA Q&A on Megan’s Law: Should it apply to child offenders?
Dr. Elizabeth J. Letourneau did the first study looking at the consequences of Megan’s Law on juveniles. She found that kids rarely commit a second offense, and that the people they are most likely to hurt are themselves. She spoke with Julie O’Connor of the Star-Ledger’s editorial board. Below is an edited transcript. Full ArticleFull Article
Read MoreOR: Our View – Stop keeping Oregonians in the dark about sex offenders
Registered sex offenders in Oregon recently got a reminder that the state is keeping an eye on them. Law enforcement agencies conducted the latest in a series of checks on the whereabouts of high-risk offenders. It ended in 15 arrests in Lane County. Unfortunately, the operation also highlighted a serious flaw in the public reporting system that enables tens of thousands of moderate and low-risk offenders to remain in the shadows. Full Article (Free Registration may be required)
Read MoreACSOL Emotional Support Group Meetings Available: Sat, Oct 26 in L.A.; Most Thursdays in Sac; Monthly on the phone
Emotional Support Group meetings will be held for those convicted of a sex offense and their loved ones. This meeting, which is based upon the format of 12 Step meetings, provides registrants and their loved ones with an opportunity to discuss personal challenges and share their experiences, strengths and hopes, with each other. Attendance is limited to individuals required to register, family members, and friends. Media, law enforcement, parole, etc. are not allowed to attend meetings. There is no cost to attend. No reservations are required. Face-to-face and phone emotional…
Read MoreHalloween Marathon Details
Dear ACSOL members, In less than two weeks, NARSOL and ACSOL together will be hosting the third annual “Halloween Conference Call and Cop Watch Marathon.” Both NARSOL’s Larry Neely and ACSOL’s Janice Bellucci will be taking questions, reporting on the latest legal developments, and collecting live reports on troubling law enforcement activities around the nation to prohibit Halloween involvement by the families of people on the registry. Our goal is to have attorneys from all over the country participating in the call and willing to opine on the constitutionality…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: Are We Collateral Damage?
Collateral Damage: Injury inflicted on someone other than an intended target. Specifically, civilian casualties of a military operation. The earliest known use of the term was in1947. Until I had a family member on the registry, I’d never been referred to as “collateral damage”, then all of a sudden, that’s what I was informed I had become. When I was a newbie to this registry nation, some of the more senior advocates suggested that family and friends of registrants are considered “collateral damage.” “We’re not ON the registry, but we…
Read MoreGA: Palmer Sheriff Puts ‘No Trick-Or-Treat’ Signs in Yards of Sex Offenders
[1065.iheart.com – 10/17/19] A Sheriff in Georgia is not messing around when it comes to Halloween. He put up “No Trick-Or-Treat at This Address” signs in the yards of sex offenders in order to keep children out of harms way. “I’m not trying to humiliate ’em or anything like that. Let’s face reality: We have a greater chance of children getting run over by a car [on Halloween] than being a victim of sexual assault by a repeat offender,” says Sheriff Gary Long. “But at the end of the day…
Read MoreOH: Sheriff’s office says check sex offender list before children go trick-or-treating
[salemnews.net – 10/18/19] LISBON — With about 158 registered sex offenders living in Columbiana County, the county sheriff’s office is reminding residents they can check for the registered addresses online so children can avoid those houses while trick-or-treating. “We do the best we can in making sure sex offenders live where they tell us, so it is crucial that our citizens visit our website to see who the registered sex offenders are and where they are living,” said Chief Deputy Kip Dowling, adding he encourages county citizens to check…
Read MoreLA: Louisiana sheriffs promoting new app that alerts parents if sex offenders contact children
[theadvocate.com – 10/16/19] Louisiana sheriffs are backing a new mobile app that will alert parents if a registered sex offender contacts their child. The app, Safe Virtual Neighborhood, is the newest development from OffenderWatch and parent company Watch Systems, a Covington-based company known for tracking sex offenders. Watch Systems and Louisiana’s law enforcement community have worked together since 2000, when the company launched its sex offender registry system. … The Safe Virtual Neighborhood app utilizes existing information collected in law enforcement offender databases and applies it to people’s personal mobile…
Read MoreKY: ‘It will also prevent this from happening again.’ Neighbors, including local prosecutor, sought park to displace sex offender
In a neighborhood of broad lawns and trees, residents wanted one of their neighbors to leave – and they seized on an unusual way to try and get the city’s help to force him out. The drama involved a local prosecutor, a sex offender, and a tiny sliver of land along Dixie Highway with a handful of benches and a doggy bag dispenser. In the spring, a registered sex offender moved in next door to Kyle Burns, who also happened to be an assistant Commonwealth attorney for Campbell County. Burns had an…
Read MoreNY: Sex offenders form PAC to try and gain political voice
[timesunion.com – 10/14/19] Voting blocs, where people support candidates on specific issues, have long played an outsized role in New York politics – from labor unions that focus on workplace rules, to environmentalists who place clean air and water at the top of the list. But now an unusual bloc is emerging from an unexpected place: the locked sex offenders unit at one of the state’s major psychiatric hospitals. Convicted sex offenders at Central New York Psychiatric Center are joining a PAC, or political action committee, which could conceivably raise…
Read MoreACSOL Meeting October 19 in L.A.
Please mark your calendars for ACSOL’s upcoming meeting: Saturday, Oct 19 10 a.m. ACLU Building 1313 W. 8th Street, Los Angeles (free parking below building) Registrants, friends and family and interested service providers are invited to attend these free meetings. There will be no law enforcement or media present in order to protect everyone’s privacy. The meetings start at 10 am and last about 2-3 hours. Topics of conversation include information about ACSOL’s advocacy as well as current topics and pending legal action. Please Show up, Stand up, and Speak…
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