[jlc.org – 8/13/20] The Juvenile Law Center released today a comprehensive report focused upon individuals who are currently required to register due to their conviction for a sex offense that was committed when they were children. According to that report, there are more than 200,000 such individuals including people who were convicted when they were only 8 years old. The report points out that children on sex offender registries are four times more likely to report a recent suicide attempt as compared to their peers. The same children face residency…
Read MoreYear: 2020
Sex Offender Registries Often Fail Those They Are Designed To Protect UPDATED
UPDATED with commentary from ACSOL Board Member Guy Hamilton-Smith (below) Inside the sprawling two-story tan and coral stucco building on New York Avenue in Northeast Washington, D.C., is a men’s homeless shelter that once served as a halfway house run by the government. It’s a place that some 20 registered sex offenders call home — according to the city’s sex offender registry. But at least one-third of them don’t really live there, and D.C. authorities have no idea where they are. The men are among the more than 25,000 convicted…
Read MoreACSOL Challenges Irvine’s Presence Restrictions in CA
The Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws (ACSOL) today filed a lawsuit challenging presence restrictions in the City of Irvine which were declared to be preempted by state law six years ago. Today’s lawsuit was filed after repeated requests by ACSOL to repeal the unlawful restrictions including a letter sent to the city dated February 13, 2020. “The City of Irvine has acted unlawfully for the past six years by continuing to require some registrants to obtain prior written approval before entering a public park,” stated ACSOL President Chance Oberstein. …
Read MoreAction Alert: UPDATED 8/29 Wellington, FL council looking to pass new rules for vacation rentals and those on the registry
[floridaactioncommittee.org – Action Alert – 8/24/20] 8/28/20 UPDATE: Wellington approves rules for vacation rentals Wellington, Florida is considering creating a rule that would require vacation rental owners to check to see if potential renters are on the sex offender registry. The meeting is scheduled for tomorrow [August 25] and will be held by Zoom. The Responsible Party for all Vacation Rental properties is required to conduct a nationwide search to confirm that the prospective Transient Occupant(s) is/are not a registered sexual offender or sexual predator as a result of…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: Zombies versus Sex Offenders?
A friend recently referred to a TV series, IZombie, as a TV show in which some Zombies are portrayed in a positive light. That is, she said, there are good Zombies and bad Zombies. The idea of a good Zombie piqued my curiosity to the point that I watched three seasons of that TV show. I quit watching the show when I realized I was covering my own eyes for large parts of each episode due to the gory scenes they portrayed. What did I learn from watching three seasons…
Read MoreACSOL Executive Director Appointed to CA Supreme Court Case
ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci has been appointed to the case of In re Gadlin, which is currently under review by the California Supreme Court. Prior to Ms. Bellucci’s appointment, Mr. Gadlin was represented by attorney Michael Satris, co-founder of the Prison Law Office, who recently died of a heart attack. The case was fully briefed by Mr. Satris prior to his death. “I am honored to be appointed to this case before the California Supreme Court because it challenges regulations issued by the California Department of Corrections that prohibit…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: Job Loss Due to the Registry
A recent USA Today inquiry cost a registrant and his company hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal contracts and who knows how many other jobs. The article in its entirety can be read on the ACSOL website “Sex Offender loses Covid-19 Contract at VA Hospital after USA Today ask questions.” The employee’s janitorial firm had had multiple government contracts over the years. There were never any issues with his employment record, he and his company were responsible employees and in good standing with the federal government’s vendor database. He…
Read MoreCA: Committee Passes SB 145 Despite Chair’s Objection
The Assembly’s Appropriations Committee today passed Senate Bill 145 despite objections to that bill expressed by Committee Chair Lorena Gonzales Fletcher and despite death threats made to its author, Senator Scott Wiener. “We commend Senator Wiener for his courage in the efforts required to obtain passage of Senate Bill 145,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Belulcci. “The Senator faced down not only death threats but also the opposition of the chair of a powerful legislative committee.” Because SB 145 was passed today, it will soon be voted upon by the…
Read MoreCO: Decision in Millard v. Rankin (10th Circuit US Court of Appeals)
Plaintiff-Appellees David Millard, Eugene Knight, and Arturo Vega challenge the constitutionality of Colorado’s Sex Offender Registration Act (CSORA). The district court held CSORA was unconstitutional as applied to the Appellees because the statute inflicted cruel and unusual punishment and violated substantive due process guarantees. Additionally, the district court held that the state courts’ application of CSORA’s deregistration procedures to Vega violated his procedural due process rights. Defendant-Appellant, the State, appeals from the entirety of the district court’s decision. Because the district court’s ruling contravenes binding Supreme Court and Tenth Circuit…
Read MoreIL: Inside the Endless Nightmare of Indefinite Detention Under “Civil Commitment”
[inthesetimes.com – 8/19/20] In June 2019, after serving more than 29 years in Illinois prisons, Otis Arrington expected to be released to freedom: He had finished his time, which he describes as difficult and traumatic, and his exit date was pending. But three days before he was slated to get out, Arrington says he was informed that he would, instead, be placed under a new form of confinement — one with no end date, meted out after he had already completed the punishment imposed by the criminal courts. “I was supposed to get out, and…
Read MoreACSOL Conference Reorganized as Virtual Conference on Oct. 10 and Oct. 11
The Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws (ACSOL) has reorganized its 2020 conference, “Empowered People Inspiring Change,” so that the entire conference will be held online. Individuals can also attend and participate in the conference by phone. The conference will be held on Saturday, October 10, and Sunday, October 11, from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. PST. Sign up today “ACSOL is excited to present its entire conference this year online and by phone,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “By utilizing two technology platforms, we will be able to…
Read MoreAssembly Appropriations Committee to Consider Senate Bill 145 on August 20
The Assembly Appropriations Committee is scheduled to consider Senate Bill 145 (SB 145) on August 20, 2020 on the Assembly floor starting at 10 a.m.. The Committee will consider more than 100 bills during that hearing and seating for the hearing will be very limited. The public can view the hearing on the Assembly’s website at https://www.assembly.ca.gov/todaysevents. If passed, SB 145 would exempt from mandatory registration individuals convicted of certain offenses involving minors if the person is not more than 10 years older than the minor and if that offense…
Read MoreIreland: Vigilantes suspected as child porn man’s car torched in attack
[herald.ie – 8/15/20] Gardaí are closely monitoring the situation after a 59-year-old convicted child porn offender was targeted by vigilantes twice within the space of a week. It is understood that officers have given David _____ security advice after his car was torched near his home off Drogheda Street in Balbriggan on Tuesday evening. The arson attack happened just four days after vigilantes smashed up the same vehicle. Our images show _____’s car on fire in an incident that is being investigated by Balbriggan gardaí. “An exact motive for this…
Read MoreAL: CCBOE approves policy for low risk juvenile sex offenders
[cullmantimes.com – 8/15/20] The Cullman County School Board has approved a new board policy that will allow the superintendent and school administrators to know the names of students in the system who are low risk sex offenders. The policy was approved during Thursday night’s meeting to bring the system in line with Annalyn’s Law, which was passed by the state in 2018 and requires local law enforcement to notify school system’s when a low risk juvenile sex offender is enrolled in one of its schools. Learning Support Specialist Karen Pinion shared some of…
Read MoreFederal Government Publishes Proposed Changes to SORNA
[ACSOL] The federal government yesterday published in the Federal Register proposed changes to the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). The changes encompass a total of 93 pages and include a wide range of topics, including retroactivity, tier levels, professional licenses and travel (both domestic and international). Replies to the proposed regulations are due no later than October 13, 2020. According to the proposed regulations, SORNA will apply to all individuals convicted of a sex offense, including those convicted before it was enacted. The federal government claims to have…
Read MoreACSOL Board Member Catherine Carpenter Exposes Laws That Exclude Registrants
ACSOL Board Member Catherine Carpenter has published an academic paper that identifies many laws throughout the country that are characterized as criminal justice reform laws, but exclude anyone convicted of a sex offense from their benefits. “ACSOL has vanquished residency restrictions thanks to the tireless efforts of our Executive Director, Janice Bellucci,” stated ACSOL Board Member Carpenter. “The next frontier for us? Tackling the myriad of laws that exclude registrants from the same criminal justice reform benefits available to others who have committed crimes.” The title of the scholarly article…
Read MoreCA: Legislature Passes Bill that Delays Submission of Some Tiered Registry Petitions
The California legislature has passed a bill, Senate Bill 118, that modifies some provisions of the Tiered Registry Law set to take effect next year. The Governor signed the bill into law on August 6, 2020. “The provision within Senate Bill 118 that will affect the greatest number of people can be found in Section 11 which requires that registrants must wait to file their petition after their next birthday following July 1, 2021,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “As a result, anyone whose birthday is January 1 through…
Read MoreCA: Sex offender registration reform effort prompts death threats to Sen. Scott Wiener
[sfexaminer.com – 8/13/20] An effort by state Sen. Scott Wiener to reform sex offender registration laws and ensure equality for the LGBTQ community has drawn harassment from conspiracy theorists. Wiener, who represents San Francisco, said at a news conference Thursday that the QAnon community has claimed the bill, Senate Bill 145, would protect pedophiles, and even accused him of being a pedophile himself. The bill was introduced by Wiener last year to end what he and other advocates said was a blatant discrimination against LGBTQ youth regarding California’s sex offender…
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