The Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws (ACSOL) was created about 10 years ago to protect registrants and their families from a constant and continual assault of new laws that added additional challenges to daily life. The challenges included restrictions on where a registrant could visit, where a registrant could live and whether a registrant could celebrate Halloween.
During this 10-year period, ACSOL and its foundation has filed more than 100 lawsuits which have resulted in the repeal or non-enforcement of every presence restriction and residency restriction for registrants who are not on parole or probation. In addition, laws requiring registrants to post a sign on the front door of their homes on Halloween have been stricken.
Because of ACSOL, registrants in California have greater freedom and fewer restrictions than registrants in most states. We are proud of that record.
However, ACSOL is not content to rest on its laurels. To claim victory and to sit quietly while the flawed Tiered Registry Law takes effect.
To be clear, the Tiered Registry Law that ACSOL lobbied for during a six-year period is not the law that was passed. ACSOL asked for a tiered registry law that was based upon the current risk, if any, that a registrant poses. Instead, the legislature passed a law based upon the offense for which a registrant was convicted and even assigns some people who pose no risk to the highest tier.
ACSOL acknowledges that some of the current provisions of the Tiered Registry Law are fundamentally flawed. That is why the first lawsuit was filed earlier this month challenging one provision of that law. The filing of any lawsuit is a risk. However, it is the only way in which the Tiered Registry Law can be changed without engaging the state legislature which is unwilling to act at this time.
There are many reasons, or excuses, for the legislature’s unwillingness to change the Tiered Registry Law during the current legislative session which began in January 2021 and lasts until December 2022. The most common reason given is that the legislators want to wait and watch the results of the petitioning process which begins in July 2021.
ACSOL could have decided to wait until the end of the current legislative session to request changes to the Tiered Registry Law. Instead, we have decided to start challenging in court provisions of that law beginning with its weakest links. ACSOL will file more lawsuits challenging additional provisions of the Tiered Registry Law in the near future.
No one will be left behind. No one. We’ve got your back.
We ask for your patience as we take one step forward at a time. Each step builds on the last step until we have reached the goal.
There are many ways you can help ACSOL reach the goal by Showing Up – Standing Up – Speaking Up and by making a financial donation. And for those who would criticize ACSOL and its methods, please know that we will help you, too, cross the finish line and reach the land of Freedom from the Registry.
Janice, you did a great job of reminding us how far we have come how we must remain united to continue our success. We have seen how a lack of unity resulted in other organizations losing focus and effectiveness. Your call to unity is very appropriate right now.
I will continue to Show Up, Stand Up, and Speak Up for every registrant, even if I don’t directly benefit from the issue at hand, because we are all in this together.
Thank you Janice and ACSOL, yes, we are very fortunate to have you on our side here in CA. The comment that the legislature wants to see the results of the petitioning process would be laughable if it wasn’t so tragic. What is there to wait for? We know what’s going to happen. The majority of those who can petition will do it, and it will be a massive backlog with lengthy waits, even more so with COVID. Many judges will fine technicalities to reject a number of petitions, and this will add to more backlog and more waiting. And hopefully many registrants will have their petition approved, as they should, because the vast majority of us live our lives without any further infractions of the law. there…now the legislature can move forward with ending the marginalizing and discriminating against the only minority group that can be openly attacked and have oppressive laws levied against them after they have completed every requirement imposed on them by the justice system.
Thank you Janice for having our backs, it means so much to all of us 🙏 however Rialto, ca. still has Halloween ordinance stating everyone even off parole cannot celebrate Halloween , must have no exterior lights on and not answer the door. I think this is ridiculous could you please send them a letter and try to get this ordinance overturned?
We ALL owe a great debt to Janice for starting and continuing this battle on the Registry. I have been there with her for all of the legislative battles on this topic. I had the Assembly Chair of Appropriations, Lorena Gonzalez tell us we would fail at getting this passed. I heard the Chair of the Assembly Public Safety, Jones-Sawyer say he would not consider any change in the law until he had time to see how it works. He has been a prime target of our legislative lobbying. We all know that if one person who gets off the registry commits another sex crime, especially one that gets splashed across the front page, the law will go away quickly. So, it is up to us to make this work. My conviction was for CP, so I got screwed just like so many of us. But at the same time, I fought to get this imperfect bill passed, because this is not about me it is about ALL of US. Many of you were in the same boat, but for those who weren’t , let me tell you how hard it is to work to get a bill passed that puts you on Tier III. You see, I know the law will change. We just had to get something started, something to build on, something to show the Legislature that this can work. Allow those who are getting off the Registry to prove it can work to the public’s advantage. It sucks we have to wait, but if we rush this thing, we are doomed to failure. In the meantime, we MUST stand together, fight what we can in the courts, and work to convince the Legislative leaders to change the law. That takes everyone doing their part, not just Janice making a go of it alone. Before you complain, ask what you have done to help ACSOL or Janice? When did you donate to the cause? When did you write your legislator? When did you show up, standup, and speak out (to someone other than us)? If you have great, but if you haven’t take the time from writing on this site, and write the governor, or a legislator. If you are unsure what to say, ask Janice, or ask one of the ACSOL Board. We can make this happen together.
I’ve been praying a lot on this topic.
Thank you Janice! Just sent $100.00
Thanks ACSOL, Janice and Chance especially. If it was not for this organization, I would have been barred from parks and beaches even a McDonalds with a jungle gym for kids. I would have probably had to move and the list goes on and on. My family is eternally grateful and still hopeful of this new lawsuit to right a fundamentally wrong decision by the Tiered Registry makers. We support you 100%
THANK YOU Janice and Chance!
Well, guess I know where I’m throwing money come next payday. I’ve been slipping.
Ten years ago, I was forced from my parents home and on the verge of homelessness. There were many, many more restrictions (living restrictions, park restrictions, school restrictions) that had more to do with how the local police felt like enforcing them.
Ten years later, we have the tiered law. It’s not perfect. The second iteration would’ve had me off in 10 years. I’m tier 3, but it doesn’t bother me. That’s not resignation, but faith that Janet and the team will see things through. They’ve had a track record of consistency while politicians scramble to get over who were punishing/canceling now. We know the studies, we know how a decades long decision is turned into a curse, but we have seen what Janice and the org has done. She and the rest of the team are emblematic of what it means to find success around impossible odds.
We’ll win out. Now I need to remind myself to donate more.
This same idea has probably already been communicated by other supporters on here, but I just wanted to chime in and say that I thank God everyday for Janice and all at ACSOL. I can remember a time 15 or so years ago when I would search online for any kind of support system for registrants while only finding posts on forums expressing hatred toward registrants. There was NOTHING like ACSOL out there. NOTHING!
Eventually by around 2007 or 2008 a few blogs showed up. Even a couple of “blog talk radio” type of call-in shows that came and went. But there was NOTHING at all in the form of any kind of advocacy for registrants and their families.
Folks, Janice and team are the best thing out there. And when things don’t go 100% the way they should go, then please don’t go hating on them. It’s not their fault! If you want to hate on someone, do it on the few politicians who stuck their noses in and screwed with the Tiered Registry Law. Pick up the phone and let them know your feelings. Write to them. Nag the shit out of them in a legal and proper manner. You’re their constituents. It’s your right! Then, go and hound the media every time they publish some stupid story about registrants as a tactic to get ratings. Believe me when I tell you: the mainstream commercial media are the true enemy out there.
When the Berlin Wall came down, it didn’t just flop over all at once. It was one brick at a time. I wonder: were folks being criticized each time they removed a single brick? Were there haters on the sidelines criticizing them for not just flopping the whole wall over all at once? My guess is that anyone in that position would get up off their ass and start pulling down bricks too.
So, please, join all of us in tearing down this “wall”. And when something doesn’t go the way you want, then (in a legal and peaceful way) go after the source of the problem and not Janice and ACSOL. Because, as the title of this post says, they absolutely DO have your back!!!
I learned about ACSOL a little over 6 years ago. It was quite a surprise for me to find an organization who was an advocate trying to help registrants. Browsing the internet one day, I made this discovery. In 2014, I attended a meeting in Berkeley. My emotions were overwhelmed. Intelligent people. Caring people who were not judgmental. Information and hope were being expressed.
There were at least three attorneys attending this meeting. Many board members were present. This was a great introduction to my understanding of the extent of this problem. Unfortunately, the problem was much bigger than I had realized. My life was like I was living in a bubble. There were all these new laws that I never knew existed. How could these new laws be affecting me? It seemed crazy, but it became clear to me that ACSOL was here to help me navigate through this maze.
I met with Janice Bellucci and she was very friendly, extremely knowledgeable and willing to help. After all these years we finally have the Tiered Registry Law. It is not perfect, but it is a starting point. It is also a big improvement for many people. There is much work ahead for us to improve upon this law. We call upon your support and want you to know that “We Got Your Back!”
@Janice,
I’m very thankful that you wrote this. So many people don’t know the history of what you, Chance, and ACSOL (formerly CA RSOL) have accomplished. This journal was needed for the many that don’t know the full works.
And yet so many people don’t realize how CA RSOL came to be. It all started when you met a man named Frank L. who was doing work for you at your house. You heard his story and that was the start of the movement.
I am forever grateful that you gave many a voice. This website (and CA RSOL) is therapy for me, despite reading bad news after bad news for a spell on here. I can share or read other people’s thoughts on this to help me get through the day, sometimes four or five times a day. People do not realize ACSOL is still a small organization compared to the riches of ACLU and it needs funding. I donate when I can and often advertise to donate to ACSOL. I’m still afraid to stand up, speak up, but I have the capacity to donate.
Has it been 10 years already? It feels like it was just a couple of days ago that I was wallowing in remorse and misery. A decade later, I wallow much less. I am grateful for you and ACSOL. I am also very thankful you wrote this journal for others to acknowledge what you have accomplished and are still trying to accomplish.
Keep on fighting, especially for those silent voices and weak-kneed legs that prevent them from standing like myself.
Congratulations ACSOL on your success in defense of liberty. Obviously the intent of the founders was to limit gov power so that individual liberty would flourish. Without the perception of individual liberty intact government of any sort have always historically suffered collapse. Personally I believe America is near that end. Remember the Romans too dominated
the financial infrastructure but that fact didn’t save it. So while we suffer group think in the current roaring 20’s beware!
Given the relative disposition intentionally chosen between the value of the human and the value database garnered via indenture servitude implicit in offender ” registration ” collapse of a republic was inevitable. As Mr. Snowden recently put it ” the infrastructure of oppression. ”
The sex offender were surely the first to suffer it, but nevertheless the very second the people demanded and applauded it for the offender they betrayed themselves.
Thank you, Janice and Chance for all you do for us. I just donated $100 and encourage others to give what they can.
It feels like as if a dealer who sold me a car for $30,000, and then after 2 years tells me the car value went up, and my monthly payments are now $400 rather than the $300 I signed for. They CAN NOT do that obviously, so why can new laws be added AFTER sentencing, and even worse, years after sentencing.
I agree Janice Bellucci is the real deal and California people are very lucky .
For instance the tier assessment letters law enforcement really didn’t want to give us anything you should of seen their faces when a sex offender walks into their department and starts demanding paperwork It’s kinda hard to explain but they act differently when your not scared and know your rights I thank ACSOL and Janice Bellucci for that.
Last time when I was at the police department there was a guy there doing his annual registration when the 290 officers came out he was so scared he started shaking every time they asked him a question he would reply with A yes sir no sir I thought daam that’s how they keep sex offenders in line through fear and intimidation.
That shiiit dont work on me I’m in compliance I ain’t got nothing to hide I work and pay my taxes just like everyone else so I literally talk shit to police when they try harassing me because I know my rights and I know its just harrassment.
Now far as ACSOL fileing a lawsuit so soon I say go for it we have nothing to lose there’s no way in hell they’re gonna bump 288(a)’s to tier3 it would defeat the purpose of haveing A tier registry.
To the people complaining about it that’s all you do is Icomplain stop being scared and hiding behind the internet be brave we gotta start takeing chances and make power moves it’s 2021
Good luck
Ditto, those ruling are from another state and as such have no bearing in California and even differing federal districts. The 2014 California appellate ruling wasn’t resolved by the courts, in any case.
The courts simply delayed the outstanding petitions while the legislature changed the law to make the treatment of both offenses equal… And not in our favor.
The California supreme court then ruled the appellate ruling moot and all of the outstanding petitions were then denied.
I just registered by phone and I feel so left behind right now. I don’t know if the thing about the misdemeanors will ever get sorted with the DOJ either since Gavin’s constantly dealing with the recall either.
I’m so glad to hear that ACSOL has registrants backs.
Registrants in Humboldt County California need your help!.
Others and myself who reside in Humboldt County in sex offender treatment and on Parole are forced to confess to crimes for which they were arrested but not convicted.
• For example, you’re arrested and charged with assault and battery, and murder. You are convicted of only assault and battery, yet Parole and treatment will force you to confess to the murder. Treatment and Parole will present polygraph questions about your involvement in the murder. Harass and shame you about not admitting to the murder. Ultimately, failure to confess or acknowledge your guilt about the murder in writing or verbally is punished by prolonged and often indefinite parole and treatment lengths.
2. These entities refuse to provide parolees a precise treatment plan that outlines the goals and achievements to be made within Sex Offender Treatment and while on Parole so that individuals may be discharged from treatment and Parole before their maximum date.
3. The overbroad enforcement of the 2006 Sex Offender Containment Act, being enforced on individuals who have a recidivism rate at or near 0.
Not a single person in 15 years has completed the Sex offender treatment program in Humboldt county
It is unbelievable how much pandering occurs in our country.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us-promises-to-protect-womens-rights-in-afghanistan/ar-BB1eSU0G?ocid=AMZN
One giant bag of garbage when we can’t even protect our own rights. Obviously it a noble cause expressed by the authors. I know damn well these foreign nationals should be responsible for my heir own culture, instead we Americans impose ours upon them.
Hello from Illinois. I want to first congratulate all of you that have worked so hard on changing the laws there on such a true victory.
I’m a 95 year old grandfather of a reporting sex offender here in Illinois. I wish he had someone here in Illinois to reach out to like yourself that valued human rights over money.
Long story short to explain why I say that. My grandson was supposed to come off the registry in 2016, he was so excited because he was hoping to create help for all that were in his position to have to register as a sex offender after he learned that while he was reporting as one he could not use his business degrees to their full potential while on the list (as a matter of a fact he hadn’t worked but a few temp jobs in the whole 10 years). Then about a month or a few weeks before his 10 year date arrived his status and reporting changed on the Illinois registry. He was no longer labeled a “Sex Offender” but changed to a “Sexual Predator.” He went to the police station to find out why and they contacted the state police and the answer the state police gave him is “We made a mistake and we corrected it.”
I apologize for being lengthy in this but it is very valid why more advocates like you Janice are needed all across this country. I’m 95 years old and served in WWII and the Korean War. I was really hoping he’d be able to move forward in his life after 10 years and I admit we just get by with the money I get from retirement.
Well at the time we had some money to get a lawyer to look in to what was done, after 4 years we were stonewalled by them refusing to fix this issue. So my grandson consulted a criminal lawyer to see if he could get answers and he did. They changed his status on the registry because of a law that was passed a year earlier that they felt he met the criteria for without any court hearing or due process. He was told by the criminal attorney that he needed an appellate attorney to take the case and it would be expensive. He was also told by the criminal attorney that it was a great challenge to what was done because his plea was specific. The problem is even after contacting the referenced attorney’s from the criminal lawyer he found he did not have the $20k minimum needed to fight for his rights.
I’m sure my grandson is not the only one they did this too, changing their reporting from 10 years to lifetime registration and switching their label from “offender” to “Predator.”
Maybe I’m just venting more than anything because I love my grandson and I wish we had attorneys like yourself in Illinois to fight this horrible registry just as much.
I hope that you are successful in every challenge so when change comes to California fully that it echos through the rest of the places like my state to help all that are suffering what they do not believe is punishment but really is.
Thank you for all you do.
@ Gerald
Sounds like your grandson is lucky to have you in his life the only question i have is what the hell is he gonna do when your gon.
no disrespect but your 95 years old you might not be around 5-10 years from now that’s just the reality of life. Being a sex offender is a lifetime requirement it’s not just gonna go away so sitting around all day feeling sorry for yourself isn’t gonna cut it.
You said out of 10 years he’s only work at 2 or 3 temp agency must be nice.
There’s people who’ve been dealing with this nightmare for 20-30 years and had no choice but to survive they had to find a job no matter what there’s people who are forced to raise their kids in neighborhood with there faces and personal information blasted all over the internet with the word sex offender under it there’s people who have to take their kids to soccer games and practices with all the soccer moms whispering behind their back i can go on for hours describing people forced to register who never gave up and are predictive members in society.
So tell your grandson to man up and face his fears head on he put himself in this predicament and now he needs to deal with it I wish i could tell you his life is gonna get better but im sorry its not if anything its gonna get worse but that don’t mean you just lay down and die he might as well go down fighting.
Good luck
Now I had some comments or view’s to place up here as I keep a record of everything I have posted as this subject interest me and I am sure many on here. Sure many are caught up in this. Even one might say by entrapment means or other. God is a God of justice plain and simple. I made a little comment a while back and no one seemed to understand it. Cor. 1 10:13 is a good starter.
Yes I challenge Janice and all on my friends on here here or have we even had a view on “Christian Entrapment”. See anyone can talk filthy or is their nothing worse than a woman scorn. Even the first porn movie’s were voted by to let theater’s show them back after they took pray out of schools. Even TV was filtered up until that time.
So now if government doing a backslide to many that are caught up in all this mess today via this internet or are the blind still leading the blind. And yes California is the best place to start to end much of all this registry. Killings ones body is no good. See when some seem to want to kill the body should we all just try to say go fish or can one catch more fish with a little bit of faith. And yet a lot of this internet is wrong or did one get involved by accident. So who’s playing tricks on who.
Thank you Janice for that informative commentary. I recently was informed that I was going to be on the highest tier. Why, I have no idea. My actual charge falls under tier one, but somebody overrode my designation and it’d unclear how to challenge this. I have a tier letter with number and contact info. They basically won’t tell me anything. The people on the other end of the phone at the Dept of Justice and Registry are dodging every question and say to have a lawyer call. It’s frustrating to say the least.
Thank you Janice. I have my tier letter which says I’m in the third tier. My public defender had told me I would be in tier one based on the charge. Somehow that is not the case. I am looking forward to challenging this designation.