[curenational.org] Dear ACSOL friends, please consider joining the California CURE Zoom meeting Saturday, August 1 11:00 AM Pacific Please let people know we are looking for volunteers to help us start California CURE. Gale Sanders is the leader. Charles Sullivan President, International CURE (received consultative status from the United Nations) Washington, DC HOW TO ATTEND: Zoom Meeting link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89537548040?pwd=R0FvRmY5UWNreFkxL25STlIvVFNUQT09 Or call 929-205-6099 Meeting ID: 895 3754 8040 Passcode: 770242 ABOUT CURE NATIONAL: Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE) is a grassroots organization that was founded in Texas in 1972.…
Read MoreMonth: July 2020
MI: Michigan’s top court kills lawsuit by wrongly imprisoned man
[washingtontimes.com – 7/30/20] DETROIT (AP) – The Michigan Supreme Court has stopped a man from suing the state after he spent more than a year in prison for a crime that wasn’t a crime. The man was behind bars for 17 months for failing to provide accurate information for Michigan’s sex offender registry. The Corrections Department then discovered that he actually wasn’t required to register. The man sued the state, arguing that his constitutional rights were violated. The Supreme Court heard arguments in April but dropped the case in a…
Read MoreEarly Jail Releases During Pandemic Didn’t Lead to Crime Spike: Study
[thecrimereport.org – 7/27/20] A study of 29 U.S. cities has found no correlation between the early release of detainees from the cities’ jails due to COVID-19 fears and any increase in crime in those cities between March and May. “The analysis confirmed that the amount by which a county changed their jail population wasn’t correlated with the amount of change in crime,” said the report by the American Civil Liberties Union, “Decarceration and Crime During Covid-19,” released Monday. “We found no evidence of any spikes in crime in any of…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: Mississippi Senate Bill 2009
Here’s an example of a Bill being passed “before” it was thoroughly thought through. On July 1, 2020, Mississippi Senate Bill 2009, also known as Carly’s Law, was passed. The Bill prohibits future contact with the crime victim by a convicted “sex offender”; and for related purposes. Here’s a summary of the Bill. Section 1. 1) Except as otherwise provided in this section, it is unlawful for a person required to register as a sex offender under section 45-33-25 to commit any of the following actions with respect to the…
Read MoreNY: Despite Politicians’ Assurances, All Sex Offenders are Not Barred from New ‘Homeless Hotels’
[westsiderag.com – 7/29/20] Despite reassurances from politicians that there are no sex offenders at the three new homeless shelters on the Upper West Side, the city can’t bar all sex offenders from city shelters, according to Isaac McGinn, spokesperson for the Department of Homeless Services (DHS). Only sex offenders deemed “residency restricted” can be banned from shelters that are less than 1,000 feet from schools or child-care facilities, McGinn explained. Gaining that designation depends on factors like the severity of the offense and the offender’s criminal justice status. It appears…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: CA Action Alert: It’s Time to Protest Exclusion of Registrants from Prison Releases
In my last column, I implored the California Department of Corrections (CDC) to include registrants in its release of prisoners that began on July 1 due to a growing number of COVID-19 infections in the state’s prisons. Since that time, the number of prisoners infected with COVID-19 has increased dramatically in three of those prisons: San Quentin, Avenal and Chuckwalla. That is why I am writing this column. We cannot and should not stand by while thousands of prisoners, including individuals convicted of a sex offense, are exposed to this…
Read MoreWI: A convicted sex offender has filed a federal lawsuit challenging Muskego’s rules that restrict where he can live
[amp.jsonline.com – 7/28/20] A convicted sex offender has filed a federal lawsuit challenging Muskego’s rules that restrict where he can live, or whether he can live in the city at all. In the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee, Ronald E. Schroeder said the city’s ordinances violates his constitutional rights by preventing his move from Waukesha to Muskego, where he has been invited to live at the home of a woman who is a longtime friend. Schroeder, 50, is residing in Waukesha on a temporary living plan after his…
Read MoreCO: Audit Finds Deficiencies In How Colorado Sex Offender Management Board Carries Out Statutory Duties
[Press Release by the Colorado Office of the State Auditor – 7/28/20] Download PDFs of the reports from leg.colorado.gov/audits DENVER—The Office of the State Auditor (OSA) has released its performance audit of the 25-member Sex Offender Management Board (Board) at the Department of Public Safety (Department). The Board is not meeting its statutory charge to provide evidence-based standards for the evaluation, identification, treatment, management, and monitoring of Colorado’s 24,000 registered sex offenders. Specifically, of the Board’s 381 subsections of standards on evaluating, identifying, and treating offenders, only 18 percent in…
Read MoreFederal Probation and Supervised Release Violations Report by the United States Sentencing Commission July 2020
[www.ussc.gov – 7/2020] This report provides information on violations of federal probation and supervised release using data collected by the United States Sentencing Commission. For the first time, the Commission is reporting data collected from documents related to revocation hearings. Combined with data the Commission regularly collects, this report analyzes the characteristics of supervision violations and the outcomes of violation proceedings provided in documents sent to the Commission by the courts. As part of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, which created the Commission and charged it with establishing the…
Read MoreHouse Arrest Is Touted as a Humane Punishment. It’s Not.
[gen.medium.com – 7/27/20] Electronic monitoring incarcerates people who might otherwise be on probation — and makes them pay for it themselves “If I had just done time, I would’ve been done by now.”— Patricia, under house arrest in Indiana The “crime” Patricia, mother of five, committed was an odd one: She climbed through her best friend’s window to retrieve a bottle of her own medication. She and her friend had “open-door policies” and visited each other’s Indiana homes daily, including when the other wasn’t present — but her friend’s husband…
Read MoreIL: Lawsuit dismissed after sex offenders living at Aurora ministry find new homes
[dailyherald.com – 7/27/20] Sex offenders who sued to stay at the Wayside Cross Ministries halfway house in downtown Aurora after a judge ruled it is too close to a playground have dropped their litigation after all of them found alternative housing. The lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed Friday, according to Kane County court records and their attorney, Adele Nicholas, who credited the Kane County state’s attorney’s office with giving the 18 men time to move instead of arresting and essentially evicting them. Read the full article
Read MorePA: Supreme Court rules 2nd Generation Registration non-punitive
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Opinion holding that Pennsylvania’s second-generation sex offense registration statute is non-punitive and thus ex post facto challenges against it fail. Case Summary and Details
Read MoreKat’s Blog: County Commissioner Seeks A New Kind of Registry in Florida
The County Commissioner in Brevard County, Florida has put this rather odd item on next week’s County Commission agenda. County Commissioner John Tobias is apparently not satisfied with the current state residency statute for those convicted of certain sexual offenses. The existing 1,000 ft. restriction of registrants from schools, daycares and playgrounds doesn’t seem to be “safe enough” for him. The Commissioner has proposed an ordinance that would also restrict registrants from certain businesses, an “expansion of the buffer zone” if you will. Those businesses that are willing, can “voluntarily”…
Read MoreCA: Contact numbers for registrants living in the City of Los Angeles to call in order to register
[ACSOL] Following are contact numbers for registrants living in the City of Los Angeles to call in order to register. Registration in person is no longer required or even possible. Create a written record of the date and time that you call for possible future use. Central Division 213-833-3740 Rampart Division 213-484-3637 Hollenbeck Division 323-342-8994 Northeast Division 323-561-3270 Newton Division 323-846-6576 77th Street Division 323-786-5423 Harbor Division 310-726-7918/-7919 Southeast Division 213-972-7899 Southwest Division 323-276-3658 Valley Bureau 818-374-9675 (San Fernando Valley – 7 patrol divisions) West Bureau 213-473-0404…
Read MoreNY: Homeless Man Jailed for Failing to Put Address on Sex Offender Registry Dies at Rikers
[thecity.nyc – 7/20/20] On March 4, Hector Rodriguez was sent to Rikers Island because he failed to log his address with state’s sex offender registry — even though he had been homeless for years. Rodriguez died June 21 on his jail bed, while struggling to breathe during a severe asthma attack, according to Correction Department records and a family lawyer. He was 60 years old and had contracted COVID-19 in April, the lawyer said. For criminal justice reform advocates and even one city group that represents victims, Rodriguez’s death behind…
Read MoreTX: Texas man charged with murder of alleged sex offender near Carlsbad
[amp.currentargus.com/amp/ – 7/17/20] A Texas man was charged with first degree murder in the March 16 death of an alleged Lea County sex offender living in Eddy County, according to a criminal complaint filed by the Carlsbad Police Department. Rodney Welch, 43, is presumed to have run over Richard Radcliff with a pickup truck. He was also charged with leaving the scene of an accident and knowingly causing death or bodily harm to Radcliff, the criminal complaint indicated. Read the full article
Read MoreCA: Court Grants Demurrer in Jurors Case
The Los Angeles Superior Court has granted a demurrer in ACSOL’s challenge to an exclusion of all registrants from serving on a jury. The Court also scheduled a hearing to discuss the future of the case on August 11. “We are gravely disappointed that the court took this action,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “By doing so, the court has made a preliminary decision that the legislature can lawfully prevent anyone convicted of a sex offense, regardless of the type of offense or how long ago it occurred from…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: City Walk-Urban Mission Wins Preliminary Injunction
A few months ago, I wrote about a small organization called City Walk-Urban Mission in Tallahassee, Florida. The ministry was started in 2012 by Anthony and Renee Miller, it’s purpose, a faith-based, voluntary, re-entry type program to offer homeless men and ex-offenders a hand up, a chance to get back on their feet. The program accepts registrants. The original piece was written back in May 2020. At that time City Walk had run into some nasty problems with county officials who seemed bent on closing them down. Certain neighbors of…
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