[dailywire.com – 2/22/21] It was November 12, 2019, when Flavia Peréa received a phone call from her 6-year-old son’s school saying a girl in his first-grade class had accused him of touching her inappropriately. The phone call was from the dean of students, who, according to the Boston Globe, indicated that her son’s alleged behavior was a form of sexual harassment, something the boy wouldn’t even be able to understand at that age. The dean vaguely explained the situation to Peréa before adding as what the Globe characterized as “an…
Read MoreYear: 2021
CA: Lawsuit Challenges Tiered Registry Law Provision
[ACSOL] A lawsuit has been filed challenging a provision of the California Tiered Registry Law that assigns individuals convicted of similar offenses to two different tiers. Specifically, the law assigns individuals convicted of Penal Code 288(a) to Tier 2, which requires a minimum of 20 years registration, and yet assigns individuals convicted of Penal Code 288(c) to Tier 3, which requires lifetime registration. “The only difference between these two offenses is the age of the victim,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “And the current language of the law punishes…
Read MoreOH: Effort underway to charge sex offenders federally
[10tv.com – 2/22/21] COLUMBUS, Ohio — Preying on children and spending very little time in jail; it may surprise you just how many sex offenders have been multiple times before seeing serious times behind bars. There is an effort underway to charge those offenders federally. … Franklin County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Rick Minerd says it is disheartening for his investigators when an offender faces little or no jail time. “It is frustrating for law enforcement at times when we see repeat offenders. Let’s face it, law enforcement, it’s hard…
Read MoreICE cancels operation targeting sex offenders
[yahoo.com and Fox News – 2/20/21] Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody is among several attorneys general urging Biden administration to reverse the cancellation. Click here to watch the video
Read MoreCA: Senator Brian Jones introduces bill to prohibit violent sex offenders from getting out of prison early
[kusi.com – 2/19/21] SANTEE (KUSI) – Senator Brian W. Jones (R-Santee) has introduced Senate Bill 445, a measure to stop violent sex offenders from being eligible for early release from prison. Senator Jones joined Good Evening San Diego to discuss his bill. “Violent sex offense victims, and the families of victims, should not have to wonder if their attacker will suddenly get out of prison long before they finish their sentence,” stated Senator Jones. “Right now the law is rigged and forces the Board of Parole Hearings to justify why…
Read MoreSouthern Baptists divided over politics, race, LGBTQ policy
[fox13memphis.com – 2/20/21] Divisions over race, politics, gender and LGBTQ issues are roiling America’s largest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, ahead of a meeting of its executive committee next week. … The most recent disfellowship of an SBC church occurred a year ago when the executive committee ousted Ranchland Heights Baptist Church of Midland, Texas, because it employed a registered sex offender as pastor. Read the full article
Read MoreIA: No place for an old sex offender but Marathon
[stormlake.com – 2/18/21] An elderly sex offender from Marathon was removed from the Iowa Sex-Offender Registry on Tuesday so he can eventually end up in a nursing home, a development that “outraged” a former state senator whose last major proposal was to establish a geriatric sex-offender unit in Algona. Buena Vista County District Court Judge David Lester ruled on Tuesday Edward _____, 83, satisfied the state’s requirements to be removed from the registry. He’s been out of prison for more than five years; a Department of Corrections director in Sioux…
Read MoreAL: News 5 Investigates Female sex offenders
[wkrg.com – 2/17/21] MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) — In February, two women have been arrested for sexually abusing minors. On Feb. 5, WKRG News 5 brought you the story of ______ a former Ruckel Middle School teacher charged with having a sexual relationship with a student. On Feb. 16, ______ was charged with sexually abusing a young child. Research shows women make up a small percentage of sexual predators. Research into sex offenders historically mostly focused on men. The Department of Justice reports the first articles on female sex offenders didn’t…
Read MoreCASOMB Feb 2021 Reports Changes in Registrant Community
The California Sex Offender Management Board (CASOMB), during its monthly meeting today, reported changes in the registrant community. Among those changes is a slight decrease in the total number of registrants to 108,106. Of that total, there are 82,526 registrants who are not in custody including 18,565 in violation for failure to register and 6,994 who are homeless. “Although no reason was given regarding the small reduction in the total number of registrants, it is logical to believe that the reduction is based upon a large number of people reported…
Read MoreWA: Say what? Child sex victims must prove they’re not wed to abuser? Scrub this law now
[thenewstribune.com – 2/17/21] Part of the job of a lawmaker is to be a law eraser. Washington legislators are sometimes asked to scrub anachronistic language from the statute books, not just because it’s embarrassing and offends our contemporary values, but because it can have damaging consequences today. Consider laws from the early 1900s that condoned sex between adults and children as young as 10 years old, as long as they were married. Believe it or not, this language has persisted for more than a century in state law, making Washington…
Read MoreBook Review: Justice Perverted: Sex Offense Law, Psychology, and Public Policy
[littlefieldtccc.com – 1/13/21] Book review by Charles Patrick Ewing [The author is a first rate attorney who has worked with registrants for decades] Over the past quarter century Congress, state legislatures and the courts have radically reshaped America’s laws dealing with sex offenders in an effort to reduce the prevalence of sex offenses. Most convicted sex offenders must now register with the authorities, who then make information about them available to the public. Possession of child pornography has been made an extremely serious crime often punishable by prison sentences that…
Read MoreFL: Urban City Walk Mission in Tallahassee (registrants can stay in their shelter)
[floridaactioncommittee.org for citywalkmission.com – 2/16/21] City Walk opened as a “Cold Night Shelter” in late November. Where the City and City Walk disagree is on the definition of a “cold night.” Our local government says it’s not a cold night until it is ‘35 degrees or below for three or more consecutive hours.’ So if it is 36 degrees and raining our local government says it’s not cold enough to activate. Many of our congregation are elderly, some in their 70’s and 80’s and many others with severe disabilities. A…
Read MoreStranger Danger: A Conversation with Historian & Author Paul Renfro on March 5 (Zoom)
Join Paul Renfro as he discusses his book: Stranger Danger Family Values, Childhood, and the American Carceral State (Oxford University Press, 2020). March 5 8:15 AM Pacific Time Click here for more details and to register Beginning with Etan Patz’s disappearance in Manhattan in 1979, a spate of high-profile cases of missing and murdered children stoked anxieties about the threats of child kidnapping and exploitation. Publicized through an emerging twenty-four-hour news cycle, these cases supplied evidence of what some commentators dubbed “a national epidemic” of child abductions committed by “strangers.”…
Read MoreCA: ‘Nobody cares about sex offenders.’ COVID deaths spike at state hospital in Fresno County
[fresnobee.com – 2/15/21] A spike in coronavirus-related deaths at a state-run psychiatric hospital in Fresno County has angered and alarmed patients, who blame hospital staff for a massive outbreak that infected hundreds and killed more than a dozen patients over the past six months. One patient who spoke with The Bee said he struggled to bring attention to the outbreak at Coalinga State Hospital in Fresno County. He said he’s been “ignored” and “neglected” for one simple reason — most of the patients in Coalinga are rapists, child molesters, and…
Read MoreND: Committee hears push to seal certain criminal records
[thedickinsonpress.com – 2/15/21] Individuals must be free of convictions for three years to have a misdemeanor charge sealed and five years for a felony charge. The time requirement begins after conviction of the crime. Crimes that are considered violent or that require registering as a sex offender are not eligible. Read the full article
Read MoreWA: Should People With Criminal Convictions Be Able to Work in Health Care? Bill in Legislature Would Relax State Laws
[chronline.com – 2/14/21] Washington lawmakers are discussing a bill that would end the automatic disqualification of people with certain criminal convictions from working with vulnerable populations in health care or home care. Bill sponsors say it would address the shortage of qualified caretakers and empower people with convictions to take charge of their lives. House Bill 1411 would allow people with certain crimes on their record to be eligible to apply for jobs with the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) at long-term care facilities or as in-home caretakers.…
Read MoreIn Furor Over Poet With Child Porn Conviction, Prison Abolitionists Debate the Limits of Mercy
[theintercept.com – 2/14/21] Is Poetry magazine “platforming toxicity” or promoting the “practice of freedom”? A bedrock principle of the prison abolitionist movement is that you don’t ask an incarcerated person what they’re in for. It’s more than etiquette. To eschew the identity that the punitive state assigns — which could be false — is to see someone whole. “Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done,” says Equal Justice Initiative founder Bryan Stevenson. Even a murderer is somebody’s baby. That’s the way guest editors Tara Betts, Joshua…
Read MoreACSOL Phone Meeting Feb 20
Listen to the recording Please join ACSOL Executive Director and civil rights attorney Janice Bellucci as well as ACSOL President and criminal defense attorney Chance Oberstein for our next phone meeting. The meeting will be held on Saturday, Feb 20, beginning at 10 a.m. Pacific time and will last at least two hours. This meeting will be recorded and then posted as an audio recording. A link to the recording will be at the top of our pages. People from all states are welcome. (712) 770-8055 Conference code 983459 Discussion…
Read More